BACKGROUND: Global nursing shortages have exacerbated time pressure and burnout among nurses. Despite the well-established correlation between burnout and patient safety, no studies have addressed how time pressure among nurses and patient safety are related and whether burnout moderates such a relation.
OBJECTIVES: This study investigated how time pressure and the interaction of time pressure and nursing burnout affect patient safety. DESIGN-SETTING PARTICIPANTS: This cross-sectional study surveyed 458 nurses in 90 units of two medical centres in northern Taiwan.
METHODS: Nursing burnout was measured by the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Service Scale. Patient safety was inversely measured by six items on frequency of adverse events. Time pressure was measured by five items. Regressions were used for the analysis.
RESULTS: While the results of regression analyses suggest that time pressure did not significantly affect patient safety (beta=-.01, p>.05), time pressure and burnout had an interactive effect on patient safety (beta=-.08, p<.05). Specifically, for nurses with high burnout (n=223), time pressure was negatively related to patient safety (beta=-.10, p<.05).
CONCLUSION: Time pressure adversely affected patient safety for nurses with a high level of burnout, but not for nurses with a low level of burnout.
}, year = {2010}, journal = {Int J Nurs Stud}, volume = {47}, pages = {1442-50}, month = {11/2010}, issn = {1873-491X}, doi = {10.1016/j.ijnurstu.2010.04.005}, language = {eng}, }