Hospital Nurses in Comparison to Community Nurses: Motivation, Empathy, and the Mediating Role of Burnout

Background: Hospital nurses' experience of their profession differs from that of community clinic nurses due to different working conditions and settings. Purpose: To compare hospital nurses and community clinic nurses as to the mediating role of burnout on motivation and empathy. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, 457 nurses completed four questionnaires: Demographic, Motivation Questionnaire, the Maslach Burnout Inventory, and the Toronto Empathy Questionnaire. Results: Emotional exhaustion and depersonalization among hospital nurses were significantly higher than among community nurses. No significant differences were found in personal accomplishment, empathy, and motivation between the groups. Empathy and motivation were more strongly correlated among hospital nurses than among community nurses. Burnout was found to be a significant mediator between empathy and motivation in both groups but in each group by different burnout subscales. Conclusions: To reduce burnout, leaders in the nursing field must enhance conditions in the hospital nurses' work environment to lower levels of emotional exhaustion and depersonalization; community nurses should be guided to improve their attitudes toward their on-the-job performance to promote their personal accomplishment. Understanding the differences could direct policy makers' desire toward enacting policies that accommodate these differences and focus on the needs of both groups of professionals.