Work values and their association with burnout/work engagement among nurses in long-term care hospitals.

AIMS: To examine burnout and work engagement among nurses in Japanese long-term care hospitals and their relation to nurses' and organisational work values, and nurse-organisation congruence of such values.

BACKGROUND: Nursing managers must help improve nurses' well-being; however, no research has considered strategies to improve staff outcomes in long-term care hospitals. We propose that individual nurse's work values and the congruence of these values with those of their organisations may influence burnout and work engagement.

METHODS: We conducted a cross-sectional survey of nurses in long-term care hospitals. Multiple regression analyses were conducted to examine the effects of nurses' work values and nurse-organisation congruence in these values on burnout and work engagement.

RESULTS: Higher individual intrinsic and altruistic work values were associated with improvements in nurses' burnout and work engagement. Nurse-organisation non-congruence in altruistic values was associated with lower work engagement, whereas that of intrinsic work values was not associated with either outcome variable.

CONCLUSION: Promoting intrinsic and altruistic work values among nurses could be effective for improving both burnout and work engagement.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT: Opportunities such as case conferences could foster intrinsic and altruistic work values through the review of good care practices and communication between managers/colleagues about feelings and thoughts.