How do three components of professional commitment influence nurse-reported patient-centred care and care quality?

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES: To test how the three components of professional commitment (i.e. affective, continuance and normative professional commitment) are associated with nurse-reported patient-centred care and care quality.

BACKGROUND: Patient-centred care and care quality are the two critical care outcomes. However, no study has yet examined how the three components of professional commitment are related to nurse-reported patient-centred care and care quality, showing a research gap.

DESIGN: This study adopted a two-wave design (first wave in 2017 and second wave in 2019), which is known to reduce the possibility of reverse causality, and which was conducted in a large hospital in Northern Taiwan.

METHODS: Proportionate random sampling was used. Full-time nurses were surveyed, while nursing students, interns, nurse practitioners and nursing supervisors were excluded. The first wave included 524 nurses, and 438 nurses were retained in the second wave. We used confirmatory factor analysis to verify the psychometric properties of the measures. Structural equation modelling was used to implement hypothesis testing. We used the Professional Commitment Scale of Meyer et al. (Journal of Applied Psychology, 1993, 78, 538), the Patient-Centered Care Scale of Laird-Fick et al. (Patient Education and Counseling, 2011, 84, 90) and the Care Quality Perceptions Scale of Teng et al. (Journal of Nursing Management, 2010, 18, 275). The STROBE statement was chosen as the EQUATOR checklist.

RESULTS: Affective professional commitment was positively associated with nurse-reported patient-centred care (β = .18, p = .002 and .01), which was positively associated with nurse-reported care quality (β = .85, p < .001). Affective and normative professional commitment were also positively associated with nurse-reported care quality (β = .17, p < .001).

CONCLUSIONS: Our findings offer insights for nursing managers that nurses' affective and normative professional commitment could help upgrade care outcomes. Hospital managers should consider professional commitment as relevant to their workforce.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE: Nursing managers could publicise reports documenting nurses' significant contributions to public health. This could strengthen affective professional commitment among nurses.