Nurse-perceived time pressure and patient-perceived care quality.
OBJECTIVE
To examine how time pressure among nurses influences patient-perceived care quality.


BACKGROUND
Although nurses worldwide face increased time pressure in the workplace, no studies have addressed how workplace time pressure influences patient-perceived care quality. Patient-perceived care quality predicts patient intent to revisit the hospital if care is required, warranting investigation as to whether nurse-perceived time pressure decreases patient-perceived care quality.


METHODS
A cross-sectional design and survey method were adopted. The data analysis was based on 229 nurse-patient sets drawn from a medical centre in northern Taiwan. Each set comprised one nurse and three patients.


RESULTS
The study results demonstrate that time pressure among nurses reduces patient-perceived reliability/accountability, responsiveness and assurance. The test results, however, did not indicate a significant negative association between time pressure and patient-perceived empathy and tangibles.


CONCLUSIONS
Time pressure among nurses may reduce patient perception of care quality in terms of reliability/accountability, responsiveness and assurance.


CONCLUSIONS
To enhance patient perception of care quality, nursing managers need to devise means to reduce nurse-perceived time pressure.
Teng
Ching-I
CI
Department of Business Administration, Chang Gung University, Gueishan, Taoyuan, Taiwan. chingit@mail.cgu.edu.tw
Hsiao
Feng-Ju
FJ
Chou
Tin-An
TA
D000328:Adult; D016001:Confidence Intervals; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004526:Efficiency; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009718:Nurse Administrators; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000523:psychology*; D009745:Nursing, Supervisory; D016273:Occupational Exposure; D017060:Patient Satisfaction; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012941:Social Responsibility; D013315:Stress, Psychological; D013998:Time Perception; D017132:Workplace; D055815:Young Adult