Emotional Exhaustion and Emotional Contagion: Navigating Turnover Intention of Healthcare Personnel.

PURPOSE

This study aimed to examine the role of personal emotions and emotional contagion within organizations on the behavior and attitudes of healthcare personnel. This study is expected to provide a theoretical foundation for reducing resignation behaviors and improving healthcare quality.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This study adopted a quantitative research method with a cross-sectional survey through an online questionnaire. The bootstrap method with 5000 iterations was used to validate the role of variables within a 95% confidence interval. SPSS 26.0 and Model 5 in Process 3.4 for SPSS were used for the data analysis.

RESULTS

This research involved 459 healthcare personnel, whose levels of role overload (3.821±0.925), emotional exhaustion (3.436±1.189), and turnover emotional contagion (3.110±1.099) were notably high. Role overload was positively related to turnover intention, with emotional exhaustion as a mediator. Notably, turnover emotional contagion exerted a positive moderating effect.

CONCLUSION

This study emphasizes the adverse effects of emotional exhaustion and turnover emotional contagion in the Chinese context, offering practical recommendations for medical organizational managers to navigate turnover intention among healthcare personnel. This study suggests paying attention to the emotional state of healthcare personnel and providing adequate support resources. Managers should routinely assess and track turnover emotional contagion within the organization, fostering a positive emotional atmosphere.