The impact of role overload on healthcare workers’ psychological distress and well-being: The mediating role of task distraction and moderating roles of resilience and emotional intelligence

TL;DR

This study shows how high workloads affect healthcare workers' mental health and how resilience and emotional intelligence can help reduce these effects.

Contribution

The study introduces the mediating role of task distraction and the moderating roles of resilience and emotional intelligence in the impact of role overload on healthcare workers.

Findings

Role overload is positively linked to psychological distress and negatively linked to psychological well-being.

Task distraction partially mediates the relationship between role overload and mental health outcomes.

Resilience and emotional intelligence moderate the negative effects of workload and distraction on mental health.

Abstract

Healthcare professionals, including physicians, nurses, and allied health workers, often balance patient care demands under high workloads and limited resources. Maintaining workforce well-being is essential for healthcare system effectiveness. This study examined the impact of role overload (RO) on psychological distress (PD) and psychological well-being (PWB), focusing on the mediating role of task distraction (TD) and the moderating roles of employee resilience (ER) and emotional intelligence (EI). A cross-sectional design was employed, and data were collected from 600 healthcare workers in public and private hospitals in Lahore, Islamabad, Peshawar, Swabi, and Mardan, Pakistan. Validated psychometric scales were used to measure RO, ER, TD, PD, PWB, and EI. The results showed that RO was positively associated with PD and negatively associated with PWB. TD partially mediated both associations. ER moderated the relationship between RO and TD, while EI moderated the associations between TD and both PD and PWB. These findings indicate that higher resilience and emotional intelligence buffer the negative impact of workload and distraction on mental health outcomes. This study highlights the importance of organizational interventions, such as resilience training, emotional intelligence development, and strategies to reduce task distraction, to strengthen healthcare workforce well-being and improve patient care quality.

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