Supporting patients' autonomy as a mediator between healthcare professionals' basic psychological needs and work...

Area of Science:

• Rehabilitation Science
• Healthcare Professional Well-being
• Psychology

Background:

• Occupational and physical therapists encounter significant challenges in daily practice.
• These challenges can impact their ability to maintain a client-centered approach.
• Understanding factors influencing therapist well-being is crucial for effective healthcare delivery.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between healthcare professionals' basic psychological needs satisfaction and their support for patient autonomy.
• To examine the mediating role of autonomy support in the association between needs satisfaction and work meaning, job satisfaction, and compassion fatigue.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 152 public health occupational and physical therapists.
• Data were collected using Qualtrics and analyzed with structural equation modeling.
• A mediation model was employed to test the hypothesized relationships.

Main Results:

• Perceived patient autonomy support significantly mediated the link between basic needs satisfaction and work meaning.
• Autonomy support did not mediate the relationship between needs satisfaction and job satisfaction.
• Autonomy support did not mediate the relationship between needs satisfaction and compassion fatigue.

Conclusions:

• Supporting patient autonomy contributes to healthcare professionals' sense of work meaning.
• The perception of supporting patient autonomy does not appear to influence job satisfaction.
• Supporting patient autonomy does not protect therapists from compassion fatigue.