Influence of type D personality on job stress and job satisfaction in clinical nurses: the mediating effects of compassion fatigue, burnout, and compassion satisfaction

AIMS: To test a hypothetical path model evaluating the influence of type D personality on job stress and job satisfaction and to identify the mediating effects of compassion fatigue, burnout, and compassion satisfaction among clinical nurses in South Korea. BACKGROUND: Personalities susceptible to stress, compassion fatigue, and burnout in clinical nurses have negative effects on the job stress and job satisfaction. DESIGN: A correlational, cross-sectional design was used. METHODS: A convenience sample of 875 clinical nurses was recruited between December 2014 - February 2015. The structured questionnaires included the Type D personality scale-14, Professional Quality of Life, job stress, job satisfaction, and general characteristics. To test the hypothetical path model, we performed a path analysis by using the AMOS 18·0 program. FINDINGS: Based on the path model, type D personality was significantly associated with compassion fatigue, burnout, and compassion satisfaction in our study subjects. Type D personality was significantly associated with job stress and job satisfaction via the effect of burnout, compassion satisfaction, and job stress. CONCLUSION: Since type D personality is associated with job stress and job satisfaction, identifying personalities vulnerable to stress would help to address job stress and to enhance job satisfaction when nurses have a high level of compassion fatigue and burnout and a low level of compassion satisfaction. The development of interventions that can reduce negative affect and social inhibition of nurses with type D personality and investigation of methods to decrease their compassion fatigue and burnout and to increase compassion satisfaction should be encouraged.