Supporting patients’ autonomy as a mediator between healthcare professionals’ basic psychological needs and work meaning

Background: In their everyday clinical practice, occupational and physical therapists face physical, cognitive, and emotional challenges that may undermine a client-centered approach. Objectives: Using self-determination theory, we hypothesized that healthcare professionals whose basic psychological needs are satisfied are more likely to support their patients’ autonomy. This, in turn, will be associated with the therapists’ sense of work meaning, job satisfaction, and compassion fatigue. Methodology: A cross-sectional survey based on a questionnaire was administered using Qualtrics to public health occupational and physical therapists ( n = 152). Structural equation modeling was used to examine a mediation model. Results: Results demonstrated participants’ perception of supporting their patients’ autonomy mediated the relations between their basic needs satisfaction and work meaning (95% CI [0.07, 0.35]). However, autonomy support did not mediate the association between needs satisfaction and job satisfaction, and compassion fatigue. Conclusion: We conclude that healthcare professionals’ perception of themselves as supporting their patients’ autonomy adds to their work meaning but does not relate to their job satisfaction or protect them from compassion fatigue.