The impact of teamwork on nurses' emotional labour, well-being, quality of patient care and turnover intention

Submission note: A thesis submitted in total fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy to the La Trobe Business School, Faculty of Business, Economics and Law, La Trobe University, Bundoora.

In the face of a worldwide nursing shortage, nurse retention has become an increasingly important concern for management of health care organisations. The performance of emotional labour is integral to the work of many health care professionals. Although it has been suggested in the nursing literature that nurses emotional labour can be conducive to the delivery of patient care, there is also evidence to indicate that there is an adverse effect on employees’ well-being. Currently, there is a dearth of literature that investigates the link between emotional labour and perceived quality of care delivered and ultimately turnover intention. The contribution of team climate in the relationship between emotional labour and burnout is also not known. A cross-sectional quantitative study was conducted with self completed questionnaires. Participants were 201 registered nurses employed at a large metropolitan public health service in Victoria, Australia. The final structural equation model demonstrated that amongst the emotional labour components, faking has a significant negative influence on perceived quality of care whereas hiding predict burnout which in return causes an increase in turnover intention. Team climate was also found to be a potential moderator in the hiding and burnout relationship which eventually can influence turnover intention. These results demonstrated that the use of different strategy for performing emotional labour can have different implications on nurses’ well-being, perceived quality of care and turnover intention. The establishment of a strong team climate can be used as a practical way to help nurses manage the emotional demands of their role, promote their wellbeing and retention.