Nurses' interaction styles when supporting patients in self-management: A profile approach

Area of Science:

• Nursing
• Healthcare Management
• Psychology

Background:

• Chronic care necessitates patient participation and self-regulation, requiring nurses to prioritize patient perspectives and foster competency.
• Self-Determination Theory posits that nurses can interact with patients using autonomy-supportive, controlling, structuring, or chaotic styles.
• Nurses often blend these interaction styles based on personal and situational factors in clinical practice.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify distinct nurse profiles based on the co-occurrence of autonomy support, structure, control, and chaos, guided by Self-Determination Theory.
• To investigate whether these nurse profiles are significantly associated with nurse-related indicators.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional design utilizing latent profile analysis.
• Validated self-report questionnaires were administered to 389 nurses counselling chronically ill patients.
• Latent profile analysis identified nurse interaction style profiles, with subsequent MANCOVA testing examining differences in nurse-related indicators.

Main Results:

• Four distinct nurse profiles emerged: a motivating profile (20.31%) with high autonomy support and structure, a demotivating chaotic profile (17.74%) with high chaos, an active profile (24.17%) with all styles present, and an undifferentiated profile (37.79%) with average style presence.
• These profiles significantly related to nurse-related indicators (Pillai's Trace test = .38, F(15, 756) = 7.28; p < .001; η² = .13).
• The motivating profile demonstrated the highest levels of job competency, job autonomy, and high-quality motivation.

Conclusions:

• Nurse profiling enhances understanding of co-occurring motivating and demotivating interaction styles in chronic illness self-management support.
• Interventions should focus on augmenting nurses' competence and high-quality motivation, while reducing pressure for results-driven actions.
• Profiling can aid in nurse assignment to chronic care roles and support professional development.