The influence of dementia attitude, empathy, and burden related to behavioral and psychological symptoms in dementia patients on job satisfaction of long-term care hospital nurses

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the influence of dementia attitude, empathy, and burden related to psycho-behavioral symptoms of elderly dementia patients, on job satisfaction of nurses working for the senile hospital. Methods: The subjects for this descriptive correlational study were 128 nurses who worked at 7 senile hospitals in the Incheon and Gyeonggi provinces for more than 6 months. Collected data were dementia attitude, empathy, and burden regarding psycho-behavioral symptoms of elderly dementia patients, and job satisfaction of nurses. Results: Mean scores for dementia attitude, empathy, burden regarding psycho-behavioral symptoms, and job satisfaction were 4.09±0.39, 2.79±0.20, 2.32±0.56, and 3.09±0.40 respectively. Through Pearson correlation analysis, the correlations between dementia attitude and empathy (r=.25, p=.005) and dementia attitude and job satisfaction was positive (r=.21, p=.017). The correlation between dementia attitude and burden on psycho-behavioral symptoms of elderly dementia patients was also statistically significant (r=-.28, p