A Multi-Mediation Model Study on the Impact of Caring Leadership on Nurse Humanistic Care Behavior

Abstract

With societal development and shifts in medical care models, the importance of humanistic care has become increasingly emphasized. The Healthy China 2030 plan, issued by the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China and the State Council, underscores the need to enhance humanistic care in medical services and foster harmonious doctor-patient relationships Humanistic care plays a crucial role in promoting harmonious doctor-patient relationships. A survey reveals that 84.17% of medical disputes arise from poor communication and unsatisfactory service attitudes, with only 9% attributed to medical technology issues. The primary factor is the lack of humanistic care among healthcare workers.
This study used quantitative research methods to verify the influence mechanism of caring leadership on nurses' humanistic care behavior through multi-stage data collection and analysis. The research design follows the logical chain of "theoretical hypothesis - data acquisition - model checking", and the specific steps are as follows: Firstly, 586 clinical nurses from 5 tertiary hospitals in China were selected by stratified random sampling method, and data were collected by anonymous questionnaire. The core variables included caring leadership (24-item scale, α=0.92), humanistic care behavior (16-item scale, α=0.92), and humanistic care behavior (16-item scale, α=0.92). α=0.89), emotional intelligence (α=0.88), self-efficacy (α=0.85) and emotional commitment (α=0.83) to ensure data reliability. Secondly, Pearson correlation analysis found that caring leadership was significantly positively correlated with humanistic care behavior (r=0.52, p<0.01), and Hayes's PROCESS macro program (Model 6) was used to conduct chain mediation test. The results of 5000 Bootstrap samples showed that emotional intelligence (β=0.18, 95%CI [0.12, 0.25]), self-efficacy (β=0.14, [0.08, 0.20]) and emotional commitment (β=0.09, [0.04, 0.15]) all played a partial mediating role. The chain mediation path was also significant (β=0.07, [0.03, 0.12]). In addition, the interference was excluded by control variables and multicollinearity diagnosis (VIF<2.0) to enhance the robustness of the model. Finally, the data analysis verified the theoretical framework of "leading-individual-practice-behavior", indicating that caring leadership not only directly promoted nurses' humanistic care behavior, but also indirectly strengthened this effect by improving emotional ability and organizational identity. The structural equation model and Bootstrap method were combined in methodology, which provided a new paradigm for nursing management research.
Research shows that caring behaviors from nursing managers reduce nurses' turnover improve their work behaviors. Nurses exhibiting positive work behaviors in patient care help improve patient safety and care quality. Nurses' humanistic caring behaviors depend on their attitudes toward their profession and organization and are closely linked to the leadership of nursing managers. This study aims to reveal the influences and potential pathways affecting nurses' humanistic caring behaviors, providing scientific guidance and empirical evidence for improving clinical nursing management practices and service quality.