Analysis of workload and occupational commitment: Their relationship to the caring behaviors of nurses in a hospital

Objective: To describe the caring behavior of nurses at X Hospital in Indonesia as associated with their workload and the commitment of the nurses in providing nursing care. To be done by analyzing their workload over 24 h. Method: The research design was observational analysis using a cross-sectional approach and conducted with 47 nurses who served in outpatient and inpatient units and were selected by a consecutive sampling technique. Each nurse was observed by using work sampling at 10-min intervals for 24 h over 5 working days. The occupational commitment and nurses’ caring behavior were assessed with CNPI-23. This assessed the frequency with which nurses conducted nursing treatments that reflected caring behaviors. Results: Observational results indicated that nurses’ workloads have not yet reached heavy workload value (72.72% less than 80%) because nurses do more non-productive activities. This reduces the frequency with which the nurses conduct nursing treatments that reflect caring behavior, with a CNPI score of 54.62 (range score 23–115). The results showed that there is a relationship between workload and caring behavior through comfort care (p = 0.03), and a correlation between occupational commitment and caring behavior through clinical care (p = 0.01). Conclusion: Caring behavior is not fully reflected in the care given by nurses. The increased workloads and decreased commitment of nurses in achieving organizational goals can affect the caring behavior of nurses. This, in turn, will affect the patients’ satisfaction with the health service.