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If you knew that expressing gratitude to a colleague would improve their life and yours, would you do it more often?<\/p>\n
A new study by Portland State University researchers — business professor David Cadiz, psychology professor Cynthia Mohr, and Alicia Starkey, a recent Ph.D. graduate in psychology — together with Clemson State University professor Robert Sinclair, exhibits a positive relationship between expressed workplace gratitude, physical health and mental health<\/strong>.<\/p>\n The study, “Gratitude reception and physical health: Examining the mediating role of satisfaction with patient care in a sample of acute care nurses,” shows that being thanked more often at work predicted better sleep, fewer headaches and healthier eating, because it improved nurses’ work satisfaction.<\/p>\n Improving Self-Care in a Stressful Work Environment<\/strong><\/p>\n The study involved a group of Oregon nurses, a profession that has a particularly high rate of burnout. Cadiz discusses the findings and how applying the research can have a significant impact on quality of life and job retention by preventing stress-related illnesses and disease.<\/p>\n “Nurses tend to have a thankless job. It’s very physical, and they’re often being screamed at by patients who are at their lowest. When nurses receive gratitude, it boosts them,” Cadiz explains.<\/p>\n “This type of study helps us understand how to keep nurses in the workforce in a healthy way. Nurses strongly align their profession with their identity and often look out for patients more than themselves. The gratitude matches up with their identity, gives them satisfaction in a job well done and ultimately increases self-care<\/strong>.”<\/p>\n Many people inherently connect their identity to their job and feelings of appreciation within their roles. Employers who understand and react to this can create positive social and economic change.<\/p>\n Gratitude is Good Business<\/strong><\/p>\n From an organizational, policy and leadership perspective, Cadiz says that employers should create formal or informal opportunities for people to express gratitude<\/strong>. Including gratitude in a business plan is an essential step that many business leaders miss, and that omission can have financial consequences.<\/p>\n “Employees that receive positive feedback are healthier, and that can impact the bottom line<\/strong>,” adds Cadiz. “Preventing headaches and other stress-related symptoms means fewer sick days, and, in this case, cuts down the cost of replacement nurses and overtime pay.”<\/p>\n These small changes can have a dramatic fiscal impact over time, which can result in more staff, better pay rates and increased benefits.<\/p>\n The big takeaway — express gratitude when you see someone doing a good job<\/strong>. A positive feedback loop impacts you and those around you, and can ultimately shape a healthier and happier community.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" From the Portland State University press release: If you knew that expressing gratitude to a colleague would improve their life and yours, would you do it more often? A new… Read more »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[10,338,8],"tags":[514,180,49,12,62,103,102],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28528"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28528"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28528\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28666,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28528\/revisions\/28666"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28528"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28528"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28528"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}