The Moderating Effect of Communication Competence in the Relationship between Emotional Labor and Job Stress in Nurses

Abstract

Background: This study aimed to investigate the extent to which communication competence, emotional labor and job stress among a group of Korean nurses working in the hospital. Also, the moderating role of nurses' communication competence was evaluated between emotional labor and job stress.Methods: This study used a cross-sectional descriptive design. Data were collected from 309 nurses working in four general hospitals in Korea from June 30 to July 20, 2021. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Analysis of Variance, t-test, Pearson correlation, and Hierarchical Regression with the SPSS/WIN ver. 28.0 program (IBM.Co., Armonk, NY, USA).Results: The average score of emotional labor, job stress, and communication ability was 3.39, 3.51, and 3.47 out of 5, respectively. Emotional labor showed a significant correlation between communication competency and job stress, in the relationship between emotional labor and job stress, the moderating effect of communication competency was found to be significant (<i>β</i>=-0.162, <i>P</i><0.01).Conclusions: The results showed that it is necessary to make efforts to alleviate communication competency, Emotional labor and job stress plays a buffering role in these relationships. It is suggested that an effective communication training program needs to be developed to cultivate communication skills and attitudes that can be applied to nursing practice.