Hospital nurses' working conditions in relation to motivation and patient safety.
There is a lack of empirical knowledge about nurses' perceptions of their workplace characteristics and conditions, such as level of autonomy and decision authority, work climate, teamwork, skill exploitation and learning opportunities, and their work motivation in relation to practice outputs such as patient safety. Such knowledge is needed particularly in countries, such as Estonia, where hospital systems for preventing errors and improving patient safety are in the early stages of development. This article reports the findings from a cross-sectional survey of hospital nurses in Estonia that was aimed at determining their perceptions of workplace characteristics, working conditions, work motivation and patient safety, and at exploring the relationship between these. Results suggest that perceptions of personal control over their work can affect nurses' motivation, and that perceptions of work satisfaction might be relevant to patient safety improvement work.
School of Health Sciences, University of Tampere, Finland, North Estonia Medical Centre, Estonia.
Kristi
K
Toode
Pirkko
P
Routasalo
Mika
M
Helminen
Tarja
T
Suominen
D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D004957:Estonia; D005260:Female; D019538:Health Care Surveys; D006801:Humans; D007588:Job Satisfaction; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009042:Motivation; D009726:Nurses / Q000523:psychology*; D009741:Nursing Staff, Hospital / Q000523:psychology*; D061214:Patient Safety; D017009:Professional Autonomy; D017132:Workplace / Q000523:psychology*
hospital nurse; patient safety; work motivation; working conditions; workplace characteristics