Relationship between Professional Behavior and Cognitive Dissonance in Nurses Working in Teaching Hospitals

Background and Purpose Regarding the direct connection between nurses and patients and the increasing focus on promoting professional behavior, it is highly critical to recognize and examine the factors influencing professional behavior. Cognitive dissonance arises when two or more cognitive elements are conflicting and is followed by psychophysiological impacts and may affect behavior. Thus, the current study was conducted pursuing the goal to find out the relationship between professional behavior and cognitive dissonance among the nurses working in the teaching hospitals of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences. Material and Methods In this descriptive-analytical study, 235 nurses working in the wards of teaching hospitals affiliated with Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences were randomly selected by stratified sampling method. The study tools encompassed a demographic checklist, Harmon-Jones Dissonance Arousal and Reduction Questionnaire (DARQ), and Goze ^, s Nursing Students Professional Behavior Scale(NSPBS). The statistical analysis was done by descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficient, t-test, ANOVA, and multiple linear regression using SPSS-22. In all cases of statistical analysis, the level of significance less than or equal to 0.05 (P ≤ 0.05) was taken into account. Results The current study drawn results revealed that 80.9% of nurses were women with the mean age and work experience of 32.90 ± 7.74 and 8.43 ± 7.46, respectively. Besides, the participants’ nursing professional behavior score was 109.79 ± 14.55 and cognitive dissonance score was 83.11 ± 9.45. The findings also reported a direct significant relationship between professional behavior and cognitive dissonance reduction (increased score) (P = 0.00, r = 0.256). Conclusion The study findings displayed the mean score of nursing professional behavior as high, and the mean score of cognitive dissonance was in the range of dissonance reduction. In other words, the higher the mean score of Dissonance Arousal And Reduction Questionnaire, the lower the level of dissonance-induced arousal and higher ability to reduce negative dissonance-induced feelings(defind as consonant cognition).