A Causal Model of Chronic Fatigue in Nurses: The mediating role of organizational spirituality

Nursing profession often results in chronic fatigue in nurses. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to provide a causal model of chronic fatigue based on job stressors, sleep quality and morningness/eveningness through the mediation of organizational spirituality among the nurses of Ahwaz City.

Path analysis of the correlation method was employed. The sample comprised 300 nurses from Ahwaz City who were selected via multi-stage random sampling method. The research tools included the Osipow Occupational Stress Inventory (1987), The Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (1987), Smith, Reilly and Midkiff’s Measure of Morningness/Eveningness (1989), Workplace Spirituality Scale by Milliman et al. (2003), and Jason’s ME/CFS Fatigue Types Questionnaire (MFTQ) (2009). Data were analyzed using structural equation modeling method.

Direct effect of path coefficients job stressors  on chronic fatigue (p <0.05 and β=0.19), the quality of sleep on chronic fatigue (p <0.05 and β=0.32), morningness/eveningness on chronic fatigue (p <0.05 and β=-0.11), job stressors  on organizational spirituality (p <0.05 and β=0.16), morningness/ eveningness on organizational spirituality (p <0.05 and β=0.26) were significant, respectively, but the direct path coefficient of quality of sleep on the organizational spirituality with the coefficient (p <0.05 and β=-0.01) was not significant, and on the whole, the proposed model data was verified.

It can be concluded that less job stressors lead to less chronic fatigue which improve the quality of sleep and decrease chronic fatigue. Also, the appropriateness of working shifts of nurses with morningness or eveningness factors and the promotion of organizational spirituality lead to lower chronic fatigue in nurses. On the other hand, nurses who experience less job stresses due to spiritual affairs will suffer less chronic fatigue. Moreover, the nurses’ sleep quality and the adaptation of working shift with their sleep patterns are the determinant factors of their efficiency.