Examining the impact of perceived social support on mental workload in clinical nurses: the mediating role of positive coping style.

Abstract

Background: The mental workload of nurses refers to the mental activities involved in the completion of nursing work, which can adversely impact both the physical and mental health of nurses, as well as the quality of nursing services provided. Positive coping style and perceived social support can protect nurses from the harm of mental workload. However, few studies have simultaneously examined the relationship between the three variables (mental workload, perceived social support and positive coping style). This study aims to investigate the relationship between mental workload, perceived social support and positive coping style among clinical nurses.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was collected the total of 590 clinical nurses with convenience sampling in three tertiary hospitals of Chengdu in China. The data were collected using generally information questionnaire, Nurses' NASA Task Load Index (NASA-TLX), Perceived Social Support Scale (SPSS) and The Simplified Coping Style Questionnaire (SCSQ-PCS) for clinical nurses.

Results: The total score of mental workload was 68.86 ± 17.53 among clinical nurses. Mental workload was negatively correlated with perceived social support (r = -0.340, p < 0.01) and positive coping style (r = -0.348, p < 0.01). Furthermore, positive coping style mediated the relationship between perceived social support and mental workload with the partial mediating effect of -0.161.

Conclusion: Our study found that clinical nurses suffered relatively high level of mental workload. Positive coping style could mediate the effect of perceived social support on mental workload. Appropriate strategies should be formulated to enhance the accessibility and utilization of social support by nurses, and promote them to adopt positive coping methods to deal with clinical problems, so as to further reduce the mental workload of clinical nurses.