Association of Working Hours and Patient Safety Competencies with Adverse Nurse Outcomes: A Cross-Sectional Study

Youn-Jung Son, Eun Kyoung Lee and Yukyung Ko
Additional contact information
Youn-Jung Son: Red Cross College of Nursing, Chung-Ang University, 84 Heukseok-ro, Heukseok-dong, Dongjak-Gu, Seoul 06974, Korea
Eun Kyoung Lee: Nursing Department, Soonchunhayng University Hospital Cheonan, 31 Suncheonhyang 6-Gil, Dongnam-gu, Cheonan-si, Chingcheongnam-do, Cheonan 31151, Korea
Yukyung Ko: Department of Nursing, College of Medicine, Wonkwang University, 460 Iksandae-ro, Iksan, Jeonbuk 54538, Korea

IJERPH, 2019, vol. 16, issue 21, 1-11

Abstract: The environment of health organizations can determine healthcare quality and patient safety. Longer working hours can be associated with nurses’ health status and care quality, as well as work-related hazards. However, little is known about the association of hospital nurses’ working hours and patient safety competencies with adverse nurse outcomes. In this cross-sectional descriptive study, convenience sampling was employed to recruit 380 nurses from three tertiary care hospitals in South Korea. Data were collected using structured questionnaires from May to June 2016. Hierarchical linear regression analysis was used to identify the association of working hours and patient competencies with adverse nurse outcomes among 364 participants selected for analysis. Most nurses worked over 40 h/week. Working hours ( β = 0.202, p < 0.001) had the strongest association with adverse nurse outcomes. Low perceived patient safety competencies ( β = −0.179, p = 0.001) and frequently reporting patient safety accidents ( β = 0.146, p = 0.018) were also correlated with adverse nurse outcomes. Nursing leaders should encourage work cultures where working overtime is discouraged and patient safety competencies are prioritized. Further, healthcare managers must formulate policies that secure nurses’ rights. The potential association of overtime with nurse and patient outcomes needs further exploration.

Keywords: adverse outcome; nursing; patient safety; professional competence (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/21/4083/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/16/21/4083/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:16:y:2019:i:21:p:4083-:d:279660

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().