Emotional skills and mental health: A cross-sectional study in health professions

Abstract

Background: In 2020, 5.7 million people worked in health and nursing professions in Germany. In these professions, close contact with other people is a fundamental part of the work and human beings are often the object of the work itself. Objective: The goal is to examine the impact of psychological strain (work intensity, job decision latitude), emotional exhaustion and emotional competencies (regulation) on the mental well-being of employees in healthcare and nursing professions. Materials and methods: The cross-sectional study with 624 employees working in eldercare or emergency medical services (72.5% female) was conducted in the context of two projects on workplace health promotion. We used validated procedures that contributed to predict the individual mental well-being via correlation analysis and a hierarchical regression analysis. Results: High levels of work intensity, job decision latitude, emotional exhaustion and emotional competencies (regulation) contribute to explain mental well-being (R2 = 33%). Conclusion: The results indicate that, besides experiencing work and health, emotional competencies have an impact on the mental health of employees in health professions. Consequently, this study makes an important contribution to the development of measures of workplace health management in these occupational groups.