Emotional Labor, Social Support, and Depressive Symptoms of Clinical Nurses in a Province, Korea

Kim, Ha Ja; Kim, Jeong Hee

Abstract

PURPOSE
This study was conducted to identify the level of emotional labor, social support, and depressive symptoms of nurses, and the relationships among them.
METHODS
The data were collected from 314 nurses. Surface and deep-acting scales of the Emotional Labor Scale (ELS), the personal resource questionnaire, the organizational support scale, and the Korean version of the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Rating Scale for Depression (CES-D) were used. Collected data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, and Scheffe test.
RESULTS
Fifty six percent of total subjects had mild or major depressive symptoms. As the level of surface-acting of ELS was higher, so was the level of depressive symptoms, while as the level of individual and organizational support was higher, the level of depressive symptoms was lower.
CONCLUSION
It is necessary to provide organizational-level support and to manage surface-acting in order to prevent the nurses' depressive symptoms. In particular, for the nurses who show relatively higher level of depressive symptoms; who are in 20s and have short employed years or not married, it is urgently required to be provided depressive symptoms management programs that targeted for those nurses.