The Impact Of Patient Gratitude On Nurses’ Innovation Performance

In a world of medical malpractice,the impact of the doctor-patient relationship on health care professionals has received increasing attention from scholars of organizational behavior.However,most of the existing studies focused their research perspective on the negative consequences of negative patient attitudes and lacked research on positive patient attitudes.Patient gratitude,as a positive external environment,enables health care workers to obtain work-related external information and change their work attitudes and behaviors.This study argues that exploring the specific consequences and mechanisms of patient gratitude can enrich theoretical research,while exploring the methods of improving healthcare workers’ work attitudes and behaviors in practice.In the healthcare industry,innovation can improve the patient experience and even bring unforeseen benefits to patients’ health;at the same time,healthcare organizations rely on the innovation of healthcare professionals to further enhance their competitiveness.In order to understand the effectiveness of patient gratitude,this study selected innovation performance as an outcome variable and the impact of patient gratitude on innovation performance as the main line of research.Meanwhile,in order to reveal the mechanism of the effect of patient gratitude on innovation performance,based on emotion-as-social-information theory,this paper introduces work meaningfulness as a mediating variable to explore the effect of patient gratitude on innovation performance through work meaningfulness from the perspective that emotions of patient gratitude are important social information.In addition,the successful implementation of healthcare professionals’innovation is influenced by leadership,therefore,this paper uses perceived supervisor support as a moderating variable to explore its moderating role in the relationship of patient gratitude in influencing innovation performance.The survey data of 661 nurses from three tertiary hospitals in Jinan and Taiyuan were statistically analyzed,and the data results confirmed that:(1)Patient gratitude positively affects innovation performance.Nurses who feel more positive emotions of patient gratitude will have better innovation performance;(2)Work meaningfulness mediates the relationship between patient gratitude and innovation performance.Patient gratitude improves innovation performance by positively influencing work meaningfulness.(3)Perceived supervisor support can positively moderate the relationship between work meaningfulness and innovative performance,and also positively moderate the mediating relationship between patient gratitude and innovative performance through work meaningfulness.This study has important theoretical and practical implications.Theoretically,first,it enriches the perspective of the positive doctor-patient relationship in influencing consequence research.Second,the external environment of patient gratitude as an influencing factor enriches the antecedent variables of innovation performance.Third,using perceived supervisor support as a moderator extends the boundary conditions of the relationship between patient gratitude and innovation performance.Fourth,the application of emotion-as-social-information theory to external organizational emotions expands the boundaries of the theory’s application.In practice,first,organizations and nurses should work together to shift mindsets,develop empathy,and create high-quality doctor-patient relationships.Second,organizations should increase nurses’ subjective perceptions of work meaningfulness through empowerment,encouragement,and the creation of a broader social vision.Third,leaders need to care for nurses,proactively providing work support,strengthening emotional and resource connections with nurses and allowing them to experience a higher sense of leadership support.