A human factors framework and study of the effect of nursing workload on patient safety and employee quality of working life

Nurse Burnout and Patient Safety, Satisfaction, and Quality of Care: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Importance

Occupational burnout syndrome is characterized by emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and a diminished sense of personal accomplishment and is prevalent among nurses. Although previous meta-analyses have explored the correlates of nurse burnout, none have estimated their association with health care quality and safety and patient morbidity and mortality.

Objective

To evaluate the magnitude and moderators of the association between nurse burnout and patient safety, patient satisfaction, and quality of care.

Data Source

The Web of Science, Scopus, MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, CINAHL, and ProQuest databases were searched from January 1, 1994, to February 29, 2024.

Study Selection

Two reviewers independently identified studies that reported a quantifiable association between nurse burnout and any of the outcomes of patient safety, patient satisfaction, or quality of health care.

Data Extraction and Synthesis

The PRISMA 2020 guideline was followed. Two reviewers independently extracted the standardized mean difference (SMD) (Cohen d) estimates for a random-effects meta-analysis. Subgroup analyses and meta-regressions were conducted using prespecified variables.

Main Outcomes and Measures

Any measure of patient safety, patient satisfaction, or quality of health care previously associated with nurse burnout.

Results

A total of 85 studies (81 cross-sectional and 4 longitudinal) involving 288 581 nurses from 32 countries (mean [SD] age, 33.9 (2.1) years; 82.7% female; mean [SD] burnout prevalence rate with study-specific ascertainments, 30.7% [9.7%]) were included. Nurse burnout was associated with a lower safety climate or culture (SMD, -0.68; 95% CI, -0.83 to -0.54), lower safety grade (SMD, -0.53; 95% CI, -0.72 to -0.34), and more frequent nosocomial infections (SMD, -0.20; 95% CI, -0.36 to -0.04), patient falls (SMD, -0.12; 95% CI, -0.22 to -0.03), medication errors (SMD, -0.30; 95% CI, -0.48 to -0.11), adverse events or patient safety incidents (SMD, -0.42; 95% CI, -0.76 to -0.07), and missed care or care left undone (SMD, -0.58; 95% CI, -0.91 to -0.26) but not with the frequency of pressure ulcers. Nurse burnout was also associated with lower patient satisfaction ratings (SMD, -0.51; 95% CI, -0.86 to -0.17) but not with the frequencies of patient complaints or patient abuse. Finally, nurse burnout was associated with lower nurse-assessed quality of care (SMD, -0.44; 95% CI, -0.57 to -0.30) but not with standardized mortality rate. The associations were consistent across nurses' age, sex, work experience, and geography and persistent over time. For patient safety outcomes, the association was smaller for the low personal accomplishment subcomponent of burnout than for emotional exhaustion or depersonalization, as well as for nurses with a college education.

Conclusions and Relevance

In this systematic review and meta-analysis, nurse burnout was found to be associated with lower health care quality and safety and lower patient satisfaction. This association was consistent across nurse and study characteristics.

The impact of burnout on paediatric nurses' attitudes about patient safety in the acute hospital setting: A systematic review

BACKGROUND

Patient safety is the cornerstone of quality healthcare. Nurses have a duty to provide safe care, particularly to vulnerable populations such as paediatric patients. Demands on staff and resources are rising and burnout is becoming an increasingly prevalent occupational hazard in paediatric healthcare today. Occupational stress is a barrier to maintaining a positive patient safety culture.

PURPOSE

This paper seeks to explore the impact of burnout on paediatric nurses' attitudes about patient safety.

METHODS

A systematic review approach was used. Embase, Cochrane Library, Medline, CINAHL, and PsycINFO were the databases searched. All quantitative, primary, empirical studies, published in English, which investigated associations between burnout and attitudes to patient safety in the paediatric nursing workforce were included.

RESULTS

Four studies were eligible for inclusion. These studies examined a total of 2769 paediatric nurses. Pooled data revealed overall moderate to high levels of burnout. All studies exposed a negative association between emotional exhaustion and safety attitude scoring (r = -0.301- -0.481). Three studies demonstrated a negative association to job satisfaction (r = -0.424- -0.474). The potential link between burnout and an increased frequency of adverse events was also highlighted.

CONCLUSIONS

Burnout may negatively impact paediatric nurses' attitudes to patient safety in the acute hospital setting. Targeted interventions to tackle burnout are urgently required to protect both paediatric nurses and patients.

IMPLICATIONS

Managers and policy makers must promote nurse well-being to safeguard staff and patients. Educational interventions are required to target burnout and promote patient safety. Further research is required to investigate the long-term impact of burnout.

Psychological resilience factors in intensive care nursing: a hybrid multi-criteria decision-making model

PURPOSE

To analyze the key factors influencing the psychological resilience of intensive care unit (ICU) nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic and put forward suggestions promoting resilience based on key improvement factors and clinical experience.

METHODS

Data were collected from 35 ICU nurses in a hospital in Zhejiang Province, China, through a questionnaire survey conducted between January and February 2023. The Decision-Making Trial and Evaluation Laboratory (DEMATEL) method was then used to construct and visualize the relationship structure between the factors. The DEMATEL-based Analytical Network Process (DANP) was applied to determine the influential weights of all factors. Finally, the key improvement factors were identified using importance-performance analysis (IPA).

RESULTS

Based on the cause-effect impact network diagram (CEIND), it was concluded that (C 11), (C 22), and (C 32) are the key factors that promote the improvement of psychological resilience among ICU nurses. Additionally, these factors were the key factors that influence psychological resilience. The confidence levels of these results and the gap were 99.6% and 0.4%, respectively, which exceed the threshold value of 95%, indicating good stability. Finally, for the case hospitals, (C 13) was identified as the key improvement factor.

CONCLUSIONS

Hospital administrators should support ICU nurses in enhancing their psychological resilience during major epidemics by: (i) Providing training on comprehensive protective measures and nursing skills; (ii) Effectively managing the human resources of nurses in the hospital to reduce their workload; (iii) Increasing social and organizational support for nurses to alleviate anxiety caused by large-scale public health events and improve their psychological resilience.

Quality and Safety in Nursing: Recommendations From a Systematic Review

ABSTRACT

As a consistent 24-hour presence in hospitals, nurses play a pivotal role in ensuring the quality and safety (Q&S) of patient care. However, a comprehensive review of evidence-based recommendations to guide nursing interventions that enhance the Q&S of patient care is lacking. Therefore, the purpose of our systematic review was to create evidence-based recommendations for the Q&S component of a nursing professional practice model for military hospitals. To accomplish this, a triservice military nursing team used Covidence software to conduct a systematic review of the literature across five databases. Two hundred forty-nine articles met inclusion criteria. From these articles, we created 94 recommendations for practice and identified eight focus areas from the literature: (1) communication; (2) adverse events; (3) leadership; (4) patient experience; (5) quality improvement; (6) safety culture/committees; (7) staffing/workload/work environment; and (8) technology/electronic health record. These findings provide suggestions for implementing Q&S practices that could be adapted to many healthcare delivery systems.

A Combined Assessment Tool of Teamwork, Communication, and Workload in Hospital Procedural Units

Teamwork, communication, and workload issues continue to contribute to patient safety events. The authors developed a diagnostic mixed methods toolkit combining a behavior observation tool, semistructured interview guide, and surveys to proactively identify relevant gaps. Applied across 14 units at three hospitals, this toolkit yielded 344 findings with 156 associated recommendations and took, on average, four days of observation. On a scale from 1 (not at all helpful) to 6 (substantially helpful), leaders indicated that the assessment and its recommendations were very helpful (median 5, interquartile range 5-6, 34 survey respondents, 47.9% individual-level response rate, 85.7% unit-level response rate). Integrating this tool into a broader safety strategy can help inform organizational improvement efforts.

The Burnout PRedictiOn Using Wearable aNd ArtIficial IntelligEnce (BROWNIE) study: a decentralized digital health protocol to predict burnout in registered nurses

BACKGROUND

When job demand exceeds job resources, burnout occurs. Burnout in healthcare workers extends beyond negatively affecting their functioning and physical and mental health; it also has been associated with poor medical outcomes for patients. Data-driven technology holds promise for the prediction of occupational burnout before it occurs. Early warning signs of burnout would facilitate preemptive institutional responses for preventing individual, organizational, and public health consequences of occupational burnout. This protocol describes the design and methodology for the decentralized Burnout PRedictiOn Using Wearable aNd ArtIficial IntelligEnce (BROWNIE) Study. This study aims to develop predictive models of occupational burnout and estimate burnout-associated costs using consumer-grade wearable smartwatches and systems-level data.

METHODS

A total of 360 registered nurses (RNs) will be recruited in 3 cohorts. These cohorts will serve as training, testing, and validation datasets for developing predictive models. Subjects will consent to one year of participation, including the daily use of a commodity smartwatch that collects heart rate, step count, and sleep data. Subjects will also complete online baseline and quarterly surveys assessing psychological, workplace, and sociodemographic factors. Routine administrative systems-level data on nursing care outcomes will be abstracted weekly.

DISCUSSION

The BROWNIE study was designed to be decentralized and asynchronous to minimize any additional burden on RNs and to ensure that night shift RNs would have equal accessibility to study resources and procedures. The protocol employs novel engagement strategies with participants to maintain compliance and reduce attrition to address the historical challenges of research using wearable devices.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

NCT05481138.

Cognitive mental workload of emergency nursing: A scoping review

AIM

Emergency nurses work in an environment of high cognitive mental workload. Excessive cognitive mental workload may result in patient harm and nurses' burnout. Therefore, it is necessary to understand nurses' subjective experience of cognitive workload. This scoping review aimed to curate literature about the subjective experience of cognitive mental workload reported by nurses and psychometric measures of the phenomenon.

DESIGN

The scoping review was conducted in accordance with JBI methodology and reported using PRISMA extension for scoping review checklist.

METHODS

A priori protocol was created with Peer Review of Electronic Search Strategies checklist and registered in the OSF registry. Databases including PubMed, CINAHL, ProQuest, Scopus, Science Direct, Web of Science and Google Scholar were searched. Published reports were reviewed against the eligibility criteria by performing Title and Abstract screening, followed by Full-text screening. The initial search yielded 1373 studies. Of these, 57 studies met the criteria for inclusion in this study.

RESULTS

The search revealed five general measures of cognitive mental workload and their variations. Only one customised measure specifically for medical-surgical nurses was found in the study. Identified measures were collated and categorised into a framework for conceptual clarity. NASA Task Load Index and its variations were the most popular subjective measure of cognitive mental workload in nursing. However, no measure or self-report scale customised for emergency nurses was identified.

PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION

The findings of this scoping review can inform future research into the cognitive mental workload of nurses. The findings have implications for workplace health and safety for nurses and patients.

Psychological Safety as a New ACGME Requirement: A Comprehensive All-in-One Guide to Radiology Residency Programs

RATIONALE AND OBJECTIVES

With the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education recently updating their common program requirements to include components of psychological safety as a core principle, radiology training programs and academic radiology institutions will need to evaluate psychological safety within their residency programs and implement practices to sustain a safety culture. This article reviews current literature to present a concise guide for radiology programs on best practices for implementing psychological safety, considering the plethora of literature that is available.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We searched PubMed for published studies evaluating safety culture in medical education and residency. The key words used were Psychological Safety, Education, Radiology, Workplace Culture, and Leadership.

RESULTS

Ninety two studies were reviewed that contributed to the topics examined throughout this manuscript, including a brief history of psychological safety, evolving challenges, and a summation of best practices at the institutional, interpersonal, and individual levels that can result in a sustainable psychologically safe culture for radiology residents.

CONCLUSION

This article will highlight unique considerations pertinent to a radiology residency program, including suggestions for creating a less stressful environment during case conferences, fostering and supporting residents who are struggling, and inclusive psychological safety practices that also consider non-resident contributors to a residency program, such as attending physician faculty and non-physician radiology technicians.

Stress, Professional Burnout, and Employee Efficiency in the Greek National Organization for the Provision of Health Services

BACKGROUND

Workplace stress and burnout in the Greek healthcare system had been considered severe even before the high pressure of the COVID-19 pandemic. We aimed to investigate occupational quality of life and burnout effects on workplace errors among the administrative staff in the Greek healthcare system.

METHODS

We enrolled 120 administrative healthcare employee participants between April and May 2019. Occupational burnout was assessed using the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey and the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale.

FINDINGS

Inadequate staffing, a low sense of well-being, exhaustion, and low family income were associated with workplace errors. Increased workload and staff shortages were associated with occupation related quality of life.

CONCLUSIONS

Targeted interventions supporting healthcare staff mental health are warranted.

APPLICATION TO PRACTICE

Wellness and professional burnout can affect professional efficiency and are associated with workplace errors in the healthcare sector. Targeted interventions are warranted to support the mental health of healthcare staff during work and to prevent incidents of post-traumatic stress. Shortages of staffing may lead to an increase in the cost of the provided services.

Enhancing Respiratory Therapists' Well-Being: Battling Burnout in Respiratory Care

Burnout is a major problem in health care and is associated with adverse sequelae for patients, health care workers, and organizations. Burnout among respiratory therapists (RTs) is as high as 79% and is associated with poor or ineffective leadership, inadequate staffing, high work load, non-leadership position, and work environment. An understanding of burnout is necessary for both staff and leadership to ensure RT well-being. This narrative review will discuss the psychology of burnout, prevalence, drivers, mitigation strategies, and future directions for research.

The better work, better care framework: 7 strategies for sustainable healthcare system process improvement

Healthcare systems are under pressure to control costs and improve performance. Efforts to apply improvement trends such as "Lean" and other industrial engineering approaches have led to degradation of the working environment for healthcare professionals. Research is increasingly demonstrating how poor working environments contribute to declines in care quality and has led to calls for a "quadruple aim" with a focus on the working environment alongside quality, cost, and patient experience factors. This paper contributes to the debate by using a "systems" perspective to propose seven strategies by which healthcare systems might be improved without compromising the working environment. This article presents a rationale for these strategies based on current organisational psychology and human factors research and how these strategies might be deployed in practice. The authors argue that better working conditions leads to better care for patients and presents a viable approach for both practitioners and researchers to pursue the "Better Work, Better Care" agenda.

Frontline Nurses' clinical judgment in recognizing, understanding, and responding to patient deterioration: A qualitative study

BACKGROUND

Early warning systems and rapid response teams have been widely implemented in hospitals worldwide to facilitate early recognition and response to patient deterioration. Unfortunately, evidence suggests that these interventions have made little impact on unexpected cardiac or respiratory arrest, hospital mortality, unplanned admission to intensive care units, or hospital length of stay. These programs depend on nurses recognizing at risk patients and initiating a timely response. Although physiologic abnormalities commonly precede serious adverse events, nurses often fail to recognize or respond effectively. Clinical judgment is a critical component in the effective response to deterioration, yet little is known about factors that influence nurses' clinical judgment in these situations. Noticing, interpreting, and responding are aspects of clinical judgment and are essential to preventing further patient deterioration and serious adverse events.

OBJECTIVE

To describe medical-surgical nurses' perceptions of factors that influenced their clinical judgment in situations of patient deterioration.

DESIGN

A qualitative descriptive design using individual, semi-structured interviews. Tanner's Clinical Judgment Model served as the framework for interview questions and data analysis.

PARTICIPANTS

A purposive sample of 20 medical-surgical registered nurses were recruited from 10 adult medical-surgical units at an academic medical center hospital in the United States.

METHODS

Telephone interviews occurred between March and July 2018. A directed approach to content analysis was used to code the transcribed data and identify themes.

RESULTS

Eight themes related to each aspect of clinical judgment emerged from the analysis: Knowing the patient, Experience matters, Lots of small points where the system can fail, Making sense of the data, Something doesn't go together, Caught in the middle, Culture of teamwork, and Increased nursing workload. An overarching theme was Nurses' keen sense of responsibility. Findings revealed that factors within the nurse, the patient, and the work environment influence each component of noticing, interpreting, and initiating an effective response to deteriorating patients.

CONCLUSIONS

Findings have implications for health care systems regarding interventions to support timely recognition and response to deterioration. Nurses' clinical judgment and factors that influence each aspect (noticing, interpreting, and responding) should be a key consideration in organizational efforts to improve the overall response to patient deterioration. Research is needed to enhance understanding of the contextual factors that impact nurses' clinical judgment to inform interventions to support timely recognition and response.

Organisation-level and individual-level predictors of nurse-reported quality of care in primary care: A multilevel study in China

OBJECTIVES

Knowledge of the predictors of nursing quality and safety remains a gap in global primary care research. This study examines organisational-level and nurse-level predictors of nurse-reported quality of care from a management perspective.

METHODS

We recruited 175 primary care nurses in 38 community health centres (CHCs) varying by size and ownership in Jinan, Tianjin, Shenzhen and Shanghai. Guided by the Systems Engineering Initiative for Patient Safety model, the organisation-level predictors comprised organisational structure, organisational culture, psychological safety and organisational support, while the nurse-level predictors included organisational commitment and organisational citizenship behaviour. Nurse-reported quality of care was measured by two questions: "How do you rate the quality of care that you provide?" and "Do you often receive complaints from patients or their family members at work?" Multilevel linear regression models were used to examine the predictors of nurse-reported quality of care.

RESULTS

Among the four organisation-level predictors, organisational structure, psychological safety and organisational support were positive predictors of nurse-reported quality of care. Nurses working in CHCs with highly hierarchical organisational structures (Coef. = 0.196, p = 0.000), a high level of organisational support (Coef. = 0.158, p = 0.017) and a high level of psychological safety (Coef. = 0.159, p = 0.035) were more likely to report high quality of care or less likely to receive medical complaints. In terms of nurse-level predictors, nurses willing to increase their knowledge through continuous education were more likely to report good quality of care (Coef. = 0.107, p = 0.049) and less likely to receive medical complaints from patients (Coef. = 0.165, p = 0.041).

CONCLUSIONS

Potential management levers to improve quality of nursing care include formalised organisational structures, strong organisational support and a psychologically safe environment as well as the provision of training to facilitate continuous education. Implementing these recommendations is likely to enhance the nursing quality in primary care.

Computer clinical decision support that automates personalized clinical care: a challenging but needed healthcare delivery strategy

How to deliver best care in various clinical settings remains a vexing problem. All pertinent healthcare-related questions have not, cannot, and will not be addressable with costly time- and resource-consuming controlled clinical trials. At present, evidence-based guidelines can address only a small fraction of the types of care that clinicians deliver. Furthermore, underserved areas rarely can access state-of-the-art evidence-based guidelines in real-time, and often lack the wherewithal to implement advanced guidelines. Care providers in such settings frequently do not have sufficient training to undertake advanced guideline implementation. Nevertheless, in advanced modern healthcare delivery environments, use of eActions (validated clinical decision support systems) could help overcome the cognitive limitations of overburdened clinicians. Widespread use of eActions will require surmounting current healthcare technical and cultural barriers and installing clinical evidence/data curation systems. The authors expect that increased numbers of evidence-based guidelines will result from future comparative effectiveness clinical research carried out during routine healthcare delivery within learning healthcare systems.

Variation in Bed-to-Physician Ratios During Weekday Daytime Hours in ICUs in Australia and New Zealand

OBJECTIVES

To determine common "bed-to-physician" ratios during weekday hours across ICUs and assess factors associated with variability in this ratio.

DESIGN

Retrospective cohort study.

SETTING

All ICUs in Australia/New Zealand that participated in a staffing survey administered in 2017-2018.

PATIENTS

ICU admissions from 2016 to 2018.

METHODS

We linked survey data with patient-level data. We defined: 1) bed-to-intensivist ratio as the number of usually available ICU beds divided by the number of onsite weekday daytime intensivists; and 2) bed-to-physician ratio as the number of available ICU beds divided by the total number of physicians (intensivists + nonintensivists, including trainees). We calculated the median and interquartile range (IQR) of bed-to-intensivist ratio and bed-to-physician ratios during weekday hours. We assessed variability in each by type of hospital and ICU and by severity of illness of patients, defined by the predicted hospital mortality.

INTERVENTIONS

None.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS

Of the 123 (87.2%) of Australia/New Zealand ICUs that returned staffing surveys, 114 (92.7%) had an intensivist present during weekday daytime hours, and 116 (94.3%) reported at least one nonintensivist physician. The median bed-to-intensivist ratio was 8.0 (IQR, 6.0-11.4), which decreased to a bed-to-physician ratio of 3.0 (IQR, 2.2-4.9). These ratios varied with mean severity of illness of the patients in the unit. The median bed-to-intensivist ratio was highest (13.5) for ICUs with a mean predicted mortality > 2-4%, and the median bed-to-physician ratio was highest (5.7) for ICUs with a mean predicted mortality of > 4-6%. Both ratios decreased and plateaued in ICUs with a mean predicted mortality for patients greater than 8% (median bed-to-intensivist ratio range, 6.8-8.0, and bed-to-physician ratio range of 2.4-2.7).

CONCLUSIONS

Weekday bed-to-physician ratios in Australia/New Zealand ICUs are lower than the bed-to-intensivist ratios and have a relatively fixed ratio of less than 3 for units taking care of patients with a higher average severity of illness. These relationships may be different in other countries or healthcare systems.

Repeated assessments and predictors of nurses' shift-specific perceived workload

BACKGROUND

Workload perception is of interest to researchers and policymakers as it captures subjective assessments of nurses' workload which has implications for staffing and patient outcomes.

AIMS

We aimed to describe repeated assessments of nurses' perceived workload among registered nurses (RNs) in day and night shifts and to examine the association of perceived workload with workdays, units, and nurse-staffing.

METHODS

Repeated data on the indictors of interest were collected from 90 RNs across 91 shifts in a Lebanese acute-care hospital. Perceived workload was assessed using the NASA-Task-Load Index (NASA-TLX). Linear mixed-effect models were used for analysis.

RESULTS

Mean perceived workload was high reaching 6.63 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 6.34, 6.92) in day and 5.90 (95% CI = 5.43, 6.36) in night shifts. In mixed-effect models, perceived workload was lower on weekends/holidays as compared to weekdays in day (ß = -.32; 95% CI = -0.53, -0.12) and night (ß = -.46; 95% CI = -0.85, -0.07) shifts. Higher perceived workload (ß = .19; 95% CI = 0.04, 0.33) was associated with higher patient-to-nurse ratio in the day but not night shifts.

CONCLUSION

Repeated workload assessments support the presence of elevated perceived workload among RNs which is related to weekdays and higher patient-to-nurse ratio. Future investigations would benefit from better characterization of workload particularities to address perceived burden and improve organizational and management decisions.

Work stress, burnout, occupational commitment, and social support among Chinese pediatric nurses: A moderated mediation model

PURPOSE

Pediatric nurses are at high risk for burnout, resulting in unsatisfactory care quality. Although job resources like social support can prevent the development of burnout under work stress, the mediating role of personal resources like occupational commitment is not well studied. This study was to examine the mediating role of occupational commitment in the relationship between work stress and burnout, and test if the effect of work stress on occupational commitment varies at different levels of social support among pediatric nurses.

METHODS

A cross-sectional survey was conducted to collect data of pediatric nurses from 6 hospitals in Chengdu, China. Multiple linear regressions and bias-corrected bootstrap confidence intervals were used to test the proposed model.

RESULTS

In this sample of 488 pediatric nurses, work stress was significantly associated with emotional exhaustion (β = 0.278, p < 0.001), depersonalization (β = 0.112, p < 0.001), and personal accomplishment (β = -0.047, p < 0.05). Occupational commitment partly mediated the links of work stress and emotional exhaustion (β = 0.056, 95%CI: 0.034-0.082), and depersonalization (β = 0.026, 95%CI: 0.014-0.041), and fully mediated the relationship between work stress and personal accomplishment (β = -0.059, 95%CI: -0.080 ∼ -0.039). Social support significantly moderated the relationship between work stress and occupational commitment (β = 0.007, p < 0.01).

CONCLUSION

Among pediatric nurses, work stress has an indirect influence on burnout through occupational commitment, and such an effect is weakened when social support is high.

PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS

Nurse managers could consider developing interventions by promoting both occupational commitment and social support to prevent burnout of employees.

An Observational Study of Physicians' Workflow Interruptions in Outpatient Departments in China

Background

Workflow interruptions are frequent in hospital outpatient clinics. Eventually, not only reducing the work efficiency and quality, but also further threatening patient safety. Over the last 10–15 years, research on workflow interruptions in inpatient care has increased, but there is a lack of research on the interruptions in outpatient clinics. The present study aimed to study the differences in physicians' workflow interruptions among outpatient departments in the tertiary hospital in China.

Methods

In a tertiary hospital, a standardized observational study of 32 doctors' workflow in outpatient department of four typical clinical specialties was conducted. The record of workflow interruptions was based on a self-made observation instrument after verifying its reliability and validity. Linear regression methods were used to assess outpatient characteristics as predictors of the number of interruptions. The Kruskal-Wallis test was used to analyze the difference about the duration of interruptions among specialties, and the Chi-Square Test was used to examine the sources of interruptions among different specialties, to determine whether interruption source is associated with specialty.

Results

The number of patients was the significant independent predictor of the number of interruptions (p < 0.001). In terms of work tasks being interrupted, the highest interruption rate occurred when physicians were asking health history: 19.95 interruptions per hour. The distribution of interruption sources among the four clinical specialties were statistically different (X² = 16.988, p = 0.049).

Conclusion

The findings indicate that physicians' workflow interruptions are connected with many contents in the work system. Further emphasis should be placed on the effective application of hospital management measures in an interrupted environment to promote a safe and efficiency outpatient care.

Nurses' perceptions on the effects of high nursing workload on patient care in an intensive care unit of a referral hospital in Malawi: a qualitative study

BACKGROUND

The Malawi health system has taken numerous actions to reduce high nurse workloads, despite this, shortage of nurses especially in critical care settings still persists due to lack of prioritisation of critical care. Therefore, it is important to understand the effects of high nursing workload in Intensive Care Unit (ICU). This study aimed at exploring the perceptions of nurses regarding the effects of high nursing workload on patient care in ICU at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital.

METHODS

This qualitative descriptive study was conducted in a general ICU at Queen Elizabeth Central Hospital in Blantyre, Malawi. A purposive sample of 12 nurses working in the ICU was selected. Participants included full-time nurses working in the ICU. A total of 10 In-depth interviews were conducted to collect data upon which data saturation was reached. A semi-structured interview guide was used for data collection. Data was analysed manually using thematic analysis method by Braun & Clarke.

RESULTS

Study findings indicated that high nursing workload compromises the delivery of quality nursing care to critically ill patients, compromises patient safety and has negative impact on nurses' wellbeing.

CONCLUSION

The study findings portray that nurses are aware of the negative effects that high nursing workload has on patient care. The study findings support the need for more ICU nurses in order to reduce nurse workloads and the need for nurse managers and policy makers to develop strategies to manage nurse workloads and its effects on patient care.

A comprehensive method for the quantification of medication error probability based on fuzzy SLIM

Medication errors can endanger the health and safety of patients and need to be managed appropriately. This study aimed at developing a new and comprehensive method for estimating the probability of medication errors in hospitals. An extensive literature review was conducted to identify factors affecting medication errors. Success Likelihood Index Methodology was employed for calculating the probability of medication errors. For weighting and rating of factors, the Fuzzy multiple attributive group decision making methodology and Fuzzy analytical hierarchical process were used, respectively. A case study in an emergency department was conducted using the framework. A total number of 17 factors affecting medication error were identified. Workload, patient safety climate, and fatigue were the most important ones. The case study showed that subtasks requiring nurses to read the handwritten of other nurses and physicians are more prone to human error. As there is no specific method for assessing the risk of medication errors, the framework developed in this study can be very useful in this regard. The developed technique was very easy to administer.

Exploring Nurses’ Perceptions of their Workload at Coronavirus Disease 2019 Isolation Ward in Jakarta, Indonesia: A Qualitative Study

BACKGROUND: Nurses are at the frontline of providing care to patients with COVID-19 and have the greatest potential to be affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The high number of patients affected by COVID-19 causes an increasing burden on nurses caring for their patients; this has an impact on patient safety. Besides that, many other factors increase the workload of nurses. AIM: The purpose of this study is explore the workload of nurses, including perceptions and influencing factors.. METHODS: Nine nurses taking care of patients with COVID-19 are selected using purposive sampling at a hospital in Jakarta, Indonesia. Data was collected through semi-structured interview conducted online. Data saturation was achieved after interviewing nine nurses who work at COVID-19 isolation ward. This study adopts the constant comparison analysis developed by Glasser and Strauss. RESULTS: The paper resulted in eigh categories and four main themes, including distribution of workload, workload increase factors, challenges, and expectations of nurses caring for COVID-19 patients. CONCLUTION: The findings suggest that leaders and managers need to make policies that are fair to nurses so that they do not burden nurses with non-nursing care. They must also provide sufficient training for new nurses who will be assigned to the COVID-19 isolation ward.  

Musculoskeletal Disorders and Caring Behaviors among Nursing Staff in Greek Hospitals: a Prospective Multicenter Study

Introduction:Care delivery from nursing staff to patients in hospital environment may involve the exertion of considerable muscular force and, as a result, there is a consequent risk of developing musculoskeletal disorders (MSDs). The aim of this prospective study was to investigate the relationship between reported MSDs and perceived caring behaviors among nursing staff. Methods: A total of 250 questionnaires were completed in three Greek hospitals during February and March 2019. The Nordic Musculoskeletal Questionnaire for the evaluation of MSDs and the Caring Behaviors Inventory-24 (CBI-24) for the assessment of caring behaviors were used. Results:A total of 185 participants (74%) were found to have at least one MSD. Back (64.3%), neck (63.2%) and shoulder (58.4%) pain were the most commonly reported MSDs. The mean score on the CBI-24 scale was 5.06 (SD=0.51) and the mean "Connectedness" dimension was 4.59 (SD=0.74). Elbow MSDs were significantly associated with the lowest score in the "Knowledge and skills" dimension (p=0.024) and the lowest overall nursing score (p=0.048). Linear regression analysis showed that the lowest nursing care score was associated with left-handed nurses (p=0.008) of low hierarchical position (p=0.013), suffering from elbow MSDs (p=0.002), for which they did not seek treatment (p=0.023). Participants who continued to work on a regular basis despite MSDs showed a lower score on the dimensions of "Respectful" (p=0.05) and "Connectedness" (p=0.01). Conclusion:The nursing staff showed high percentage of MSDs that negatively affected their perceived dimensions of caring behaviors. These findings could be used to prevent and deal with work-related MSDs, reduce occupational hazards and improve hospital patient care.

Identifying the Subtypes and Characteristics of Mental Workload Among Chinese Physicians in Outpatient Practice: A Latent Profile Analysis

Objective: The purpose of this study is to investigate the mental workload level of physicians in outpatient practice since the normalization of prevention and control of the COVID-19 pandemic in China and explore the subtypes of physicians regarding their mental workload.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey of 1,934 physicians primarily in 24 hospitals in 6 provinces in Eastern, Central, and Western China was conducted from November 2020 to February 2021. A latent profile analysis was performed to identify clusters based on the six subscales of the Chinese version of physician mental workload scale developed by our research team. Chi-square tests were performed to explore the differences in demographic characteristics of the subtypes among the subgroups, and multinomial logistic regression analysis was further conducted to identify the determinants of the subtypes of physicians.

Results: Overall, the participating physicians reported high levels of task load but with high self-assessed performance (68.01 ± 14.25) while performing communication work tasks characterized by direct patient interaction in outpatient clinics. About 33.8% of the participating physicians were identified as “high workload and high self-assessment” subtype, compared to 49.7% “medium workload and medium self-assessment” subtype and 16.4% “low workload and low self-assessment” subtype. Physicians in “high workload and high self-assessment” subtype had the highest mean mental workload score. Physicians who were female, younger, married, worse health status, those who had lower educational level and an average monthly income of 5,001–10,000 RMB, those who worked in tertiary A hospitals, more hours per week and more than 40 h per week in outpatient clinics, and those who saw more outpatients per day, and spent more time per patient but with higher outpatient satisfaction were more likely to belong to “high workload and high self-assessment” subtype.

Conclusion: Our findings can help provide a solid foundation for developing targeted interventions for individual differences across physicians regarding their mental workload. We suggest the hospital managers should pay more attention to those physicians with characteristics of the “high workload and high self-assessment” subtype and strengthen the management of the workload of this subtype of physicians to reduce the risks of their mental health, and to maintain their high work performance in outpatient clinics.

The Association Between Professional Burnout and Engagement With Patient Safety Culture and Outcomes: A Systematic Review

OBJECTIVES

In the last 20 years, there have been numerous successful efforts to improve patient safety, although recent research still shows a significant gap. Researchers have begun exploring the impact of individual level factors on patient safety culture and safety outcomes. This review examines the state of the science exploring the impact of professional burnout and engagement on patient safety culture and safety outcomes.

METHODS

A systematic search was conducted in CINAHL, PubMed, and Embase. Studies included reported on the relationships among burnout or engagement and safety culture or safety outcomes.

RESULTS

Twenty-two studies met inclusion criteria. Ten studies showed a relationship between both safety culture and clinical errors with burnout. Two of 3 studies reported an association between burnout and patient outcomes. Fewer studies focused on engagement. Most studies exploring engagement and safety culture found a moderately strong positive association. The limited evidence on the relationship between engagement and errors depicts inconsistent findings. Only one study explored engagement and patient outcomes, which failed to find a relationship.

CONCLUSIONS

The burnout/safety literature should be expanded to a multidisciplinary focus. Mixed results of the relationship between burnout and errors could be due to a disparate relationship with perceived versus observed errors. The engagement/safety literature is immature, although high engagement seems to be associated with high safety culture. Extending this science into safety outcomes would be meaningful, especially in light of the recent focus on an abundance-based approach to safety.

Human factors and ergonomics methods for pharmacy research and clinical practice

BACKGROUND

Human factors and ergonomics (HFE) is a scientific and practical human-centered discipline that studies and improves human performance in sociotechnical systems. HFE in pharmacy promotes the human-centered design of systems to support individuals and teams performing medication-related work.

OBJECTIVE

To review select HFE methods well suited to address pharmacy challenges, with examples of their application in pharmacy.

METHODS

We define the scope of HFE methods in pharmacy as applications to pharmacy settings, such as inpatient or community pharmacies, as well as medication-related phenomena such as medication safety, adherence, or deprescribing. We identify and present seven categories of HFE methods suited to widespread use for pharmacy research and clinical practice.

RESULTS

Categories of HFE methods applicable to pharmacy include work system analysis; task analysis; workload assessment; medication safety and error analysis; user-centered and participatory design; usability evaluation; and physical ergonomics. HFE methods are used in three broad phases of human-centered design and evaluation: study; design; and evaluation. The most robust applications of HFE methods involve the combination of HFE methods across all three phases. Two cases illustrate such a comprehensive application of HFE: one case of medication package, label, and information design and a second case of human-centered design of a digital decision aid for medication safety.

CONCLUSIONS

Pharmacy, including the places where pharmacy professionals work and the multistep process of medication use across people and settings, can benefit from HFE. This is because pharmacy is a human-centered sociotechnical system with an existing tradition of studying and analyzing the present state, designing solutions to problems, and evaluating those solutions in laboratory or practice settings. We conclude by addressing common concerns about the implementation of HFE methods and urge the adoption of HFE methods in pharmacy.

Relationships Between Nurses' Work System, Safety-Related Performance, and Outcomes: A Structural Equation Model

OBJECTIVES

We examined relationships between nurses' work system, safety-related performance, and outcomes based on a modified Systems Engineering Initiative for Patient Safety model.

METHODS

A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 408 nurses from 2 general hospitals. Data on work system factors (person, organization, environment, tools, and task), processes (safety-related performance), and outcomes (staff and clinical outcomes) were collected. Structural equation modeling was used to determine the relationships between nurses' work system factors, safety-related processes, and outcomes.

RESULTS

Structural equation modeling yielded a comparative fit index of 0.918, standardized root mean square residual of 0.055, and root mean square error of approximation of 0.054, indicating an acceptable model fit. The person factor had a significant positive direct effect on nurses' safety-related performance, and significant negative direct and indirect effects on the clinical outcome. The organization factor had significant positive direct effects on nurses' safety-related performance and staff outcome, and a negative indirect effect on the clinical outcome. The task factor had a significant positive direct effect on staff outcome. However, the environment and tools factors had no significant effects on safety-related performance or outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS

The findings demonstrated the usefulness of the Systems Engineering Initiative on Patient Safety model to explain safety-related performance and outcomes, indicating differential effects of work system factors. Although the person factor significantly affected safety performance and clinical outcomes, the organization factor was the most influential component for promoting safety-related performance and staff and clinical outcomes. These results can be used to prioritize activities for patient safety.

Impact of workforce flexibility on quality of care: moderating effects of workload and severity of illness

Purpose

As a way of alleviating nursing workforce shortages, health care managers are employing two types of workforce flexibility: supplemental staffing and floating among units. In this paper, the authors investigate the moderating effects of two critical situational variables – namely, job-level workload and severity of illness (SOI) in a given unit – on the relationship between workforce flexibility and quality of care as assessed by the nurses at the unit-level.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors empirically test the relationship between a unit's floating of nurses and the use of supplemental workforce on the quality of patient care and the moderating role of patient SOI and job-level workload on this relationship using 357 hospital-unit observations.

Findings

The authors find that situational variables play a critical role in flexible staffing strategies and they should be accounted for carefully to obtain the best quality of care outcomes. The authors find that the well-known negative effect of supplemental staffing on quality of care is not universal and appears to be moderated by the situational factors studied in this paper.

Practical implications

For best outcomes, staffing manager who oversee multiple units should use supplemental staff on units that have lower job-level workload and on units that have high severity of illness. The authors also find that managers of units with patients who are less-severely ill should encourage nurses to float out and return to their home unit. This strategy will improve quality of patient care in the home unit.

Originality/value

While some research analyzes the direct link between flexibility and quality performance, how this relationship is affected by varying situational factors within a unit has not been studied so far.

The Association of Workload and Outcomes in the Pediatric Cardiac ICU

OBJECTIVES

Healthcare workload has emerged as an important metric associated with poor outcomes. To measure workload, studies have used bed occupancy as a surrogate. However, few studies have examined frontline provider (fellows, nurse practitioners, physician assistants) workload and outcomes. We hypothesize frontline provider workload, measured by bed occupancy and staffing, is associated with poor outcomes and unnecessary testing.

DESIGN

A retrospective single-center, time-stamped orders, ordering provider identifiers, and patient data were collected. Regression was performed to study the influence of occupancy on orders, length of stay, and mortality, controlling for age, weight, admission type, Society of Thoracic Surgery-European Association for Cardio-Thoracic Surgery Congenital Heart Surgery Mortality score, diagnosis, number of surgeries, orders, provider staffing, attending experience, and time fixed effects.

SETTING

Twenty-seven bed tertiary cardiac ICU in a free-standing children's hospital.

PATIENTS

Patients (0-18 yr) admitted to the pediatric cardiac ICU, January 2018 to December 2019.

INTERVENTIONS

None.

MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS

There were 16,500 imaging and 73,113 laboratory orders among 1,468 patient admissions. Median age 6 months (12 d to 5 yr), weight 6.2 kg (3.7-16.2 kg); 840 (57.2%) surgical and 628 (42.8%) medical patients. ICU teams consisted of 16 attendings and 31 frontline providers. Mortality 4.4%, median stay 5 days (2-11 d), and median bed occupancy 89% (78-93%). Every 10% increase in bed occupancy had 7.2% increase in imaging orders per patient (p < 0.01), 3% longer laboratory turn-around time (p = 0.015), and 3 additional days (p < 0.01). Higher staffing (> 3 providers) was associated with 6% less imaging (p = 0.03) and 3% less laboratory orders (p = 0.04). The number of "busy days" (bed occupancy > 89%) was associated with longer stays (p < 0.01), and increased mortality (p < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONS

Increased bed occupancy and lower staffing were associated with increased mortality, length of stay, imaging orders, and laboratory turn-around time. The data demonstrate performance of the cardiac ICU system is exacerbated during high occupancy and low staffing.

Capturing nurses' perception of communicative technologies in nursing facilities: Survey instrument development

BACKGROUND

Despite the common perception of the call light system as crucial for patient safety, there are usability gaps between what features staff in nursing facilities need to address an alarm quickly and how the call system is designed. A survey instrument was developed to investigate nursing home staff experiences in using call light technology.

METHODS

A survey instrument was developed and distributed to staff in two nursing facilities in Up-State, New York (N = 278). The strength and direction of relationships between pairs of variables were measured using Pearson correlation and analysis of variance to investigate the perceived effect of staff's perception of the call light system on the work system's elements, process and staff outcomes.

RESULTS

The study found correlations between the job-level workload and the noise in the unit (r = 0.272, p = .000), between job-level workload and the ease of locating call lights (r = 0.154, p = .023), and between job stress and burnout (r = 0.176, p = .009). Only 64% of nursing home staff believed that the call light system reflected urgent needs, with younger staff relating to this group. The staff gave the work environment a high score, which corresponds to excessive noises caused by the call light alarm, according to 74% of the staff. These associations stem from gaps caused by a lack of user feedback in the design and acquisition process, leading to usability issues that reduce performance and satisfaction over time.

CONCLUSION

The study found that the type of call light system used is associated with usability challenges that often impeded the performance of the nursing home staff's response to residents. These insights can improve the selection of a new call light system that avoids usability issues and challenges identified by end-users.

Can high workplace social capital buffer the negative effect of high workload on patient-initiated violence? Prospective cohort study

BACKGROUND

High workload seems to increase the risk of patient-initiated workplace violence (patient-initiated violence). However, the temporal association between workload and violence remains uncertain. Understanding the interplay of factors in the psychosocial working environment and patient-initiated violence is important to future preventive initiatives.

AIM

To assess whether a high workload increases the risk of patient-initiated violence, and whether intraorganizational relationships based on trust, reciprocity, justice and collaboration, known as workplace social capital, moderate this risk.

METHOD

Baseline survey data on 1823 social educators was collected followed by 12 monthly surveys on patient-initiated violence exposure. Poisson regressions, in mixed models, were conducted to assess the risk of violence at four levels of workload. Further, moderation analyses were conducted to assess the moderating effects of three sub-types of workplace social capital.

RESULTS

High and very high workload increased the risk of patient-initiated violence: RR = 1.5 [1.4-1.6], p < .001 and RR = 1.4 [1.3-1.4], p < .001. All three levels of workplace social capital had a moderating effect on the workload-violence association: Workload*Workplace social capital_(co-worker): F (3, 16,712) = 3.4, p = .017, Workload*Workplace social capital_{(local management)}: F (3, 16,748) = 11.9, p < .001, Workload*Workplace social capital_{(general management)}: F (3, 16,556) = 5.5, p < .001. Only high Workplace social capital _(co-workers) reduced the risk of violence at all levels of workload. Workplace social capital _{(general management)} reduced the risk of violence at high, medium and low workload, and Workplace social capital _{(local management)} reduced the risk of violence at medium and low workload.

CONCLUSION

High workload clearly increases the risk of patient-initiated violence. A high workplace social capital appears to be a viable protective factor and should be investigated further in studies of patient-initiated violence prevention.

Care left undone and work organisation: A cross-sectional questionnaire-based study in surgical wards of Estonian hospitals

BACKGROUND

Care left undone is a worldwide problem for both the quality of health care and the safety of patients. In surgical nursing, care left undone is a critical issue arising from the intensive pace of work, invasive procedures and the pressure for efficiency. Previous knowledge about care left undone in surgical contexts is missing.

OBJECTIVE

To describe care left undone and its relationship to nursing and organisational characteristics in the surgical wards of regional and central hospitals in Estonia.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study with an online questionnaire took place from June to October of 2018. The target population (N = 570) consisted of nurses working in the surgical wards of two regional and three central hospitals at the time of the study. The data were analysed using descriptive statistics and Fisher's exact test. The open-ended questions were analysed with deductive content analysis.

RESULTS

Nursing care in the surgical wards was reported as having been left undone sometimes or often by 88% of the nurses. Most often, the documentation and evaluation of care plans (33%) were reported as undone and most rarely, disinfection measures were left undone (5%). Nurses with a shorter employment history left care undone more frequently, and when the number of patients per nurse increased, the amount of care left undone increased as well. More than half of the participants (59%) considered work organisation to be the cause of care left undone.

CONCLUSIONS

Work organisation and staffing in surgical wards require more attention at the management level, as nursing care left undone occurred to a significant degree in the investigated wards, and more than half of the nurses considered work organisation to be the reason for care left undone.

Remembering Ben-Tzion Karsh's scholarship, impact, and legacy

Dr. Ben-Tzion (Bentzi) Karsh was a mentor, collaborator, colleague, and friend who profoundly impacted the fields of human factors and ergonomics (HFE), medical informatics, patient safety, and primary care, among others. In this paper we honor his contributions by reflecting on his scholarship, impact, and legacy in three ways: first, through an updated simplified bibliometric analysis in 2020, highlighting the breadth of his scholarly impact from the perspective of the number and types of communities and collaborators with which and whom he engaged; second, through targeted reflections on the history and impact of Dr. Karsh's most cited works, commenting on the particular ways they impacted our academic community; and lastly, through quotes from collaborators and mentees, illustrating Dr. Karsh's long-lasting impact on his contemporaries and students.

Does tutors' support contribute to a telehealth program that aims to promote the quality of life of office workers? A cluster randomized controlled trial

The quality of life in the workplace can be achieved by creating a place more humanized and strategies that provide wellness to workers. The aim of this study was to investigate the effectiveness of telehealth education program to promote quality of life of office workers.This is a cluster randomized controlled trial (RCT). The participants were office workers computer users (n = 326). All received 9 audiovisual content (grouped into topics: musculoskeletal health, healthy diet, and mental health) that addresses the real needs identified by them in the focus groups. The intervention group (n = 178) was instructed to seek the tutor support about topics addressed by the audiovisual content. The primary outcome measure was quality of life by WHOQOL-BREF. The secondary outcome measure was level of physical activity of the participants. Data analysis was performed by General Linear Mixed Model. After six months of telehealth education program a general improvement in health and environmental domain, was observed in the intervention group. During that period, a within-group analysis showed that there was a significant improvement in the intervention group, with respect to quality of life in general health (p < 0.05) and in the environmental domain (p < 0.01).In the baseline to the eighth month, there were statistically significant changes within-group for the general health (p < 0.05) and for the physical domain (p < 0.01) in both groups (p < 0.01). Telehealth education program promoted an improvement in the participants' quality of life. There was no benefit in favor of the telehealth education program, with tutor support in relation to the conventional program.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

The trial was prospectively registered at ClinicalTrial.gov (NCT02980237). The date of registration was August 23, 2016.

Exploring the relation between modelled and perceived workload of nurses and related job demands, job resources and personal resources; a longitudinal study

Aim

Calculating a modelled workload based on objective measures. Exploring the relation between this modelled workload and workload as perceived by nurses, including the effects of specific job demands, job resources and personal resources on the relation.

Design

Academic hospital in the Netherlands. Six surgical wards, capacity 15–30 beds. Data collected over 15 consecutive day shifts.

Methods

Modelled workload is calculated as a ratio of required care time, based on patient characteristics, baseline care time and time for non-patient related activities, and allocated care time, based on the amount of available nurses. Both required and allocated care time are corrected for nurse proficiency. Five dimensions of perceived workload were determined by questionnaires. Both the modelled and the perceived workloads were measured on a daily basis. Linear mixed effects models study the longitudinal relation between this modelled and workload as perceived by nurses and the effects of personal resources, job resources and job demands. ANOVA and post-hoc tests were used to identify differences in modelled workload between wards.

Results

Modelled workload varies roughly between 70 and 170%. Significant differences in modelled workload between wards were found but confidence intervals were wide. Modelled workload is positively associated with all five perceived workload measures (work pace, amount of work, mental load, emotional load, physical load). In addition to modelled workload, the job resource support of colleagues and job demands time spent on direct patient care and time spent on registration had the biggest significant effects on perceived workload.

Conclusions

The modelled workload does not exactly predict perceived workload, however there is a correlation between the two. The modelled workload can be used to detect differences in workload between wards, which may be useful in distributing workload more evenly in order prevent issues of over- and understaffing and organizational justice. Extra effort to promote team work is likely to have a positive effect on perceived workload. Nurse management can stimulate team cohesion, especially when workload is high. Registered nurses perceive a higher workload than other nurses. When the proportion of direct patient care in a workday is higher, the perceived workload is also higher. Further research is recommended. The findings of this research can help nursing management in allocating resources and directing their attention to the most relevant factors for balancing workload.

Mental workload of frontline nurses aiding in the COVID-19 pandemic: A latent profile analysis

Aims

To investigate the mental workload level of nurses aiding the most affected area during the Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19) pandemic and explore the subtypes of nurses regarding their mental workload.

Design

Cross‐sectional study.

Methods

A sample of 446 frontline nurses participated from March 8 to 19, 2020. A latent profile analysis was performed to identify clusters based on the six subscales of the Chinese version of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Task Load Index. The differences among the classes and the variables including sociodemographic characteristics, psychological capital and coping style were explored.

Results

The level of mental workload indicates that the nurses had high self‐evaluations of their performance while under extremely intensive task loads. The following three latent subtypes were identified: ‘low workload & low self‐evaluation’ (8.6%); ‘medium workload & medium self‐evaluation’ (35.3%) and ‘high workload & high self‐evaluation’ (56.1%) (Classes 1, 2, and 3, respectively). Nurses with shared accommodations, fewer years of practice, junior professional titles, lower incomes, nonmanagement working positions, lower psychological capital levels and negative coping styles had a higher likelihood of belonging to Class 1. In contrast, senior nurses with higher psychological capital and positive coping styles were more likely to belong to Classes 2 and 3.

Conclusion

The characteristics of the ‘low workload & low self‐evaluation’ subtype suggest that attention should be paid to the work pressure and psychological well‐being of junior nurses. Further research on regular training program of public health emergency especially for novices is needed. Personnel management during public health events should be focused on the allocation between novice and senior frontline nurses.

Impact

This study addresses the level of mental workload of frontline nurses who aid in the most severe area of the COVID‐19 pandemic in China and delineates the characteristics of the subtypes of these nurses.

Relationship between resilience and professional moral courage among nurses

Nurses need to be resilient to be able to endure their working conditions, and their moral courage can affect their resilience. This work aimed at studying the relationship between resilience and professional moral courage among nurses working in hospitals. This descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on 375 nurses working in teaching hospitals in the city of Ardabil in Iran in 2019. Data was collected using the following questionnaires: a demographic questionnaire, Sekerka et al. Moral Courage Scale and Davidson-Connor Resilience Scale. The reliability of the Davidson-Connor Resilience Scale, and Moral Courage Scale were found to be 89% and 85% using the test-retest method. The data were analyzed by Pearson correlation coefficient, t-test, variance analysis, and linear regression using the SPSS software version 24. In participating nurses, mean scores were 6.35±0.5 for total moral courage (favorable) and 79.35±0.35 (moderate) for resilience, respectively. A positive and significant relationship was observed between resilience and professional moral courage (P<0.05, r=0.1). Given the positive and significant relationship between resilience and professional moral courage, nurses require to have the high moral courage to enhance their resilience. Determining factors affecting moral courage and resilience, as well as finding strategies and creating an appropriate moral climate can increase nurses' morally courageous behaviors and resilience.

Interdisciplinary collaboration between nursing and engineering in health care: A scoping review

BACKGROUND

Due to the rapid advancements in precision medicine and artificial intelligence, interdisciplinary collaborations between nursing and engineering have emerged. Although engineering is vital in solving complex nursing problems and advancing healthcare, the collaboration between the two fields has not been fully elucidated.

OBJECTIVES

To identify the study areas of interdisciplinary collaboration between nursing and engineering in health care, particularly focusing on the role of nurses in the collaboration.

METHODS

In this study, a scoping review using the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analysis Extension for Scoping Reviews was performed. A comprehensive search for published literature was conducted using the PubMed, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Scopus, Embase, Web of Science, ScienceDirect, Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Digital Library, and Association for Computing Machinery Digital Library from inception to November 22, 2020. Data screening and extraction were performed independently by two reviewers. Any discrepancies in results were resolved through discussions or in consultation with a third reviewer. Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and content analysis. Results were visualized in an interdisciplinary collaboration model.

RESULTS

We identified 6,752 studies through the literature search, and 60 studies met the inclusion criteria. The study areas of interdisciplinary collaboration concentrated on patient safety (n = 18), symptom monitoring and health management (n = 18), information system and nursing human resource management (n = 16), health education (n = 5), and nurse-patient communication (n = 3). The roles of nurses in the interdisciplinary collaboration were divided into four themes: requirement analyst (n = 21), designer (n = 22), tester(n = 37) and evaluator (n = 49). Based on these results, an interdisciplinary collaboration model was constructed.

CONCLUSIONS

Interdisciplinary collaborations between nursing and engineering promote nursing innovation and practice. However, these collaborations are still emerging and in the early stages. In the future, nurses should be more involved in the early stages of solving healthcare problems, particularly in the requirement analysis and designing phases. Furthermore, there is an urgent need to develop interprofessional education, strengthen nursing connections with the healthcare engineering industry, and provide more platforms and resources to bring nursing and engineering disciplines together.

Nurses' Perceptions of Workload Burden in Pediatric Critical Care

BACKGROUND

Quantifying nurses' perceptions of workload burden when managing critically ill patients is essential for designing interventions to ease nurses' workday.

OBJECTIVES

To explore pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) nurses' perceptions of their workload when caring for critically ill patients and managing protocolized therapies.

METHODS

This study was embedded in a multicenter randomized clinical trial where participants were assigned to receive either lower-target or higher-target glucose control. Nurses from 35 participating PICUs completed a baseline survey containing questions about their perceptions of PICU workload in general. They completed an intervention survey after caring for a study patient. Two workload measurement instruments, the Subjective Workload Assessment Technique (SWAT) and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration-Task Load Index (NASA-TLX), were embedded in these surveys.

RESULTS

Baseline surveys were completed by 1476 PICU nurses, predominantly female with a bachelor's degree and a median (interquartile range) of 6 (3-11) years of nursing experience and 4 (2-9) years of PICU experience. Most nurses (65%) rated time burden as the most important component of their workload, followed by cognitive (22%) or psychological stress (13%) burden. Work performance was selected most often as contributing to workload, followed by cognitive demand, time pressure, effort, and physical demand. Intervention surveys were completed by 73% of enrolled participants (505 of 693). Nurses managing the lower glucose target group reported higher levels of workload burden as measured by the SWAT (P = .002) and NASA-TLX (P < .001).

CONCLUSIONS

This study describes the workload burden perceived by PICU nurses when managing critically ill patients in general and when managing protocolized therapies.

Nurse Burnout Predicts Self-Reported Medication Administration Errors in Acute Care Hospitals

BACKGROUND

Every one out of 10 nurses reported suffering from high levels of burnout worldwide. It is unclear if burnout affects job performance, and in turn, impairs patient safety, including medication safety. The purpose of this study is to determine whether nurse burnout predicts self-reported medication administration errors (MAEs).

METHODS

A cross-sectional study using electronic surveys was conducted from July 2018 through January 2019, using the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory. Staff registered nurses (N = 928) in acute care Alabama hospitals (N = 42) were included in this study. Descriptive statistics, correlational, and multilevel mixed-modeling analyses were examined.

RESULTS

All burnout dimensions (Personal, Work-related, and Client-related Burnout) were significantly correlated with age (r = -0.17 to -0.21), years in nursing (r = -0.10 to -0.17), years of hospital work (r = -0.07 to -0.10), and work environment (r = -0.24 to -0.57). The average number of self-reported MAEs in the last 3 months was 2.13. Each burnout dimension was a statistically significant predictor of self-reported MAEs (p < .05).

CONCLUSIONS

Nurse burnout is a significant factor in predicting MAEs. This study provides important baseline data for actionable interventions to improve nursing care delivery, and ultimately health care, for Alabamians.

Categorizing and understanding medication errors in hospital pharmacy in relation to human factors

BACKGROUND

Medication errors (MEs) in hospital settings are attributed to various factors including the human factors. Human factors researches are aiming to implement the knowledge regarding human nature and their interaction with surrounding equipment and environment to design efficient and safe systems. Human Factors Frameworks (HFF) developed awareness regarding main system's components that influence healthcare system and patients' safety. An in-depth evaluation of human factors contributing to medication errors in the hospital pharmacy is crucial to prevent such errors.

OBJECTIVE

This study, therefore, aims to identify and categorize the human factors of MEs in hospital pharmacy using the Human Factors Framework (HFF).

METHOD

A qualitative study conducted in King Saud Medical City, Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Data collection was carried out in two stages; the first stage was the semi-structured interview with the pharmacist or technician involved in the medication error. Then, occupational burnout and personal fatigue scores of participants were assessed. Data analysis was done using thematic analysis.

RESULTS

A total of 19 interviews were done with pharmacists and technicians. Themes were categorized using HFF into five categories; individual, organization and management, task, work, and team factors. Examples of these themes are poor staff competency, insufficient staff support, Lack of standardization, workload, and prescriber behaviour respectively. Scores of fatigue, work disengagement, and emotional exhaustion are correlating with medium fatigue, high work disengagement, and high emotional exhaustion, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS

The study provided a unique insight into the contributing factors to MEs in the hospital pharmacy. Emotional stress, lack of motivation, high workload, poor communication, and missed patient information on the information system, are examples of the human factors contributing to medication errors. Our study found that among those factors, organizational factors had a major contribution to medication safety and staff wellbeing.

Infusion Center Outpatient Acuity: An Integrative Review of the Literature

PROBLEM

Patient acuity is a concept used in the health care setting and is a driver of nurse staffing and patient scheduling practices, but it is sometimes used without any well-defined understanding of its true meaning. As healthcare transitions to the ambulatory setting, which includes infusion centers, it is imperative that it provides high-quality care that increases patient and provider satisfaction. An integrative literature review was conducted to identify the current state of outpatient acuity and opportunities for classifying patients in the infusion center. Eligibility criteria: Key words included outpatient acuity and nurse satisfaction with workload from peer-reviewed sources in the English language and nursing discipline. Associated MeSH terms were also included in the search.

SAMPLE

Articles from the Cochrane Library, PubMed, Ovid, CINAHL, and SCOPUS databases were used for this analysis.

RESULTS

Forty-five relevant abstracts and 13 were included in the analysis.

CONCLUSION

There is no systematic way to assign nurse workload in the ambulatory setting. A review of the articles revealed themes of effective resource allocation, satisfaction, and classification and acuity tools, which supports the implementation or use of an acuity system to assign patient workload in the ambulatory setting.

IMPLICATIONS

The lack of research evidence also supports the need for additional research. Leaders must take an active role in researching the evidence and developing evidence-based practice guidelines to ensure that safe and quality care is consistently rendered. Research is needed to test the impact of a patient acuity system for the pediatric ambulatory infusion center on nurse satisfaction.

A national study of personal accomplishment, burnout, and satisfaction with work-life integration among advance practice nurses relative to other workers

BACKGROUND

There is a high prevalence of burnout among health care professionals, but little remains known about burnout and satisfaction with work-life integration (WLI) among advance practice nurses (APNs).

PURPOSE

To evaluate burnout and satisfaction with WLI among APNs compared with other US workers.

METHODS

A national sample of APNs and a probability-based sample of US workers completed a survey that measured burnout and satisfaction with WLI.

RESULTS

Of the 976 (47%) APNs who completed the survey 64% had high personal accomplishment, 36.6% had symptoms of overall burnout, and 60.6% were satisfied with their WLI. In multivariable analysis, work hours (for each additional hour odds ratio [OR] 1.03, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.02-1.04, p < .001) and working in an outpatient setting (overall p = .03; referent hospital: outpatient, OR 1.80, 95% CI 1.17-2.18; other/unknown, OR 1.41, 95% CI 0.90-2.22, p = .13) were independently associated with having higher odds of burnout. Work hours were also independently associated with lower odds of satisfaction with WLI (for each additional hour OR 0.94, 95% CI 0.94-0.95, p < .001). Advance practice nurses were not more likely to have burnout or have greater struggles with WLI than other workers.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE

Findings from this study suggest APNs have high levels of personal accomplishment and a favorable occupational health profile. Advance practice nurses do not appear at higher risk of burnout or dissatisfaction with WLI than other US workers.

Factors contributing to the patient safety culture in Saudi Arabia: a systematic review

BACKGROUND

Patient safety, concerned with the prevention of harm to patients, has become a fundamental component of the global healthcare system. The evidence regarding the status of the patient safety culture in Arab countries in general shows that it is at a suboptimal level due to a punitive approach to errors and deficits in the openness of communications.

OBJECTIVES

To identify factors contributing to the patient safety culture in Saudi Arabia.

DESIGN

Systematic review.

METHODS

A systematic search was carried out in May 2018 in five electronic databases and updated in July 2020-MEDLINE, CINAHL, Embase, PsycINFO and the Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. Relevant journals and reference lists of included studies were also hand-searched. Two independent reviewers verified that the studies met the inclusion criteria, assessed the quality of studies and extracted their relevant characteristics. The Yorkshire Contributory Factors Framework (YCFF) was used to categorise factors affecting safety culture in the included papers.

RESULTS

14 papers were included and the majority of studies were appraised as being of good quality. Strength and weakness factors that contribute to patient safety culture were identified. Ineffective leadership, a blame culture, workload/inadequate staffing and poor communication are reported as the main factors hindering a positive patient safety culture in Saudi Arabia. Conversely, 'strength' factors contributing to a positive patient safety culture included supportive organisational attitudes to learning/continuous improvement, good teamwork within units and support from hospital management for patient safety. There is an absence of patient perspectives regarding patient safety culture in Saudi Arabia.

CONCLUSION

Policymakers in the Saudi healthcare system should pay attention to the factors that may contribute to a positive patient safety culture, especially establishing a blame-free culture, improving communications and leadership capacity, learning from errors and involving patient perspectives in safety initiatives. Further research is required to understand in depth the barriers and facilitators to the implementation of a positive patient safety culture in Saudi Arabia.

Whose experience is it anyway? Toward a constructive engagement of tensions in patient-centered health care

Purpose

Healthcare delivery faces increasing pressure to move from a provider-centered approach to become more consumer-driven and patient-centered. However, many of the actions taken by clinicians, patients and organizations fail to achieve that aim. This paper aims to take a paradox-based perspective to explore five specific tensions that emerge from this shift and provides implications for patient experience research and practice.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper uses a conceptual approach that synthesizes literature in health services and administration, organizational behavior, services marketing and management and service operations to illuminate five patient experience tensions and explore mitigation strategies.

Findings

The paper makes three key contributions. First, it identifies five tensions that result from the shift to more patient-centered care: patient focus vs employee focus, provider incentives vs provider motivations, care customization vs standardization, patient workload vs organizational workload and service recovery vs organizational risk. Second, it highlights multiple theories that provide insight into the existence of the tensions and how they may be navigated. Third, specific organizational practices that engage the tensions and associated examples of leading organizations are identified. Relevant measures for research and practice are also suggested.

Originality/value

The authors develop a novel analysis of five persistent tensions facing healthcare organizations as a result of a shift to a more consumer-driven, patient-centered approach to care. The authors detail each tension, discuss an existing theory from organizational behavior or services marketing that helps make sense of the tension, suggest potential solutions for managing or resolving the tension and provide representative case illustrations and useful measures.

Objective measures of workload in healthcare: a narrative review

PURPOSE

Workload is a critical concept in the evaluation of performance and quality in healthcare systems, but its definition relies on the perspective (e.g. individual clinician-level vs unit-level workload) and type of available metrics (e.g. objective vs subjective measures). The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of objective measures of workload associated with direct care delivery in tertiary healthcare settings, with a focus on measures that can be obtained from electronic records to inform operationalization of workload measurement.

DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH

Relevant papers published between January 2008 and July 2018 were identified through a search in Pubmed and Compendex databases using the Sample, Phenomenon of Interest, Design, Evaluation, Research Type framework. Identified measures were classified into four levels of workload: task, patient, clinician and unit.

FINDINGS

Of 30 papers reviewed, 9 used task-level metrics, 14 used patient-level metrics, 7 used clinician-level metrics and 20 used unit-level metrics. Key objective measures of workload include: patient turnover (n=9), volume of patients (n=6), acuity (n=6), nurse-to-patient ratios (n=5) and direct care time (n=5). Several methods for operationalization of these metrics into measurement tools were identified.

ORIGINALITY/VALUE

This review highlights the key objective workload measures available in electronic records that can be utilized to develop an operational approach for quantifying workload. Insights gained from this review can inform the design of processes to track workload and mitigate the effects of increased workload on patient outcomes and clinician performance.

The impact of heavy nurse workload and patient/family complaints on workplace violence: An application of human factors framework

Aim

To examine the relationships between workload factors at different systems levels (unit level, job level and task level), patients/family complaints and nurse reports of patient violence towards them using a human factors framework.

Design

This is a secondary analysis of cross-sectional data.

Methods

Data from 528 nurses working in medical-surgical settings in British Columbia, Canada, were analysed. At the unit-level workload factors included patient-RN ratios, patient acuity and dependency; at the job-level perceptions of heavy workload, undone nursing tasks and compromised professional standards due to workload; and at the task-level interruptions to workflow.

Results

Workload factors at multiple levels were directly related to workplace violence. Nurses' increased reports of compromised standards (job level) and interruptions (task level) were related to increased reports of physical and emotional violence, and higher patient acuity (unit level) was related to increased reports of emotional violence. Patient/family complaints mediated the relationship between almost all the workload factors and workplace violence.

Nursing Turbulence in Critical Care: Relationships With Nursing Workload and Patient Safety

BACKGROUND

Increased nursing workload can be associated with decreased patient safety and quality of care. The associations between nursing workload, quality of care, and patient safety are not well understood.

OBJECTIVES

The concept of workload and its associated measures do not capture all nursing work activities, and tools used to assess healthy work environments do not identify these activities. The variable turbulence was created to capture nursing activities not represented by workload. The purpose of this research was to specify a definition and preliminary measure for turbulence.

METHODS

A 2-phase exploratory sequential mixed-methods design was used to translate the proposed construct of turbulence into an operational definition and begin preliminary testing of a turbulence scale.

RESULTS

A member survey of the American Association of Critical-Care Nurses resulted in the identification of 12 turbulence types. Turbulence was defined, and reliability of the turbulence scale was acceptable (α = .75). Turbulence was most strongly correlated with patient safety risk (r = 0.41, n = 293, P < .001). Workload had the weakest association with patient safety risk (r = 0.16, n = 294, P = .005).

CONCLUSIONS

Acknowledging the concepts of turbulence and workload separately best describes the full range of nursing demands. Improved measurement of nursing work is important to advance the science. A clearer understanding of nurses' work will enhance our ability to target resources and improve patients' outcomes.

Relationship between number of health problems addressed during a primary care patient visit and clinician workload

INTRODUCTION

Primary care is complex due to multiple health problems being addressed in each patient visit. Little is known about the effect of the number of problems per encounter (NPPE) on the resulting clinician workload (CWL), as measured using the National Aeronautics and Space Administration Task Load Index (NASA-TLX).

METHODS

We evaluated the relationship between NPPE and CWL across 608 adult patient visits, conducted by 31 clinicians, using hierarchical linear regression. Clinicians were interviewed about outlier visits to identify reasons for higher or lower than expected CWL.

RESULTS

Mean NPPE was 3.30 ± 2.0 (sd) and CWL was 47.6 ± 18.4 from a maximum of 100. Mental demand, time demand and effort accounted for 71.5% of CWL. After adjustment for confounders, each additional problem increased CWL by 3.9 points (P < 0.001). Patient, problem, environmental and patient-physician relationship factors were qualitatively identified from interviews as moderators of this effect.

CONCLUSION

CWL is positively related to NPPE. Several modifiable factors may enhance or mitigate this effect. Our findings have implications for using a Human Factors (HF) approach to managing CWL.