ICU nurses’ safety performance related to respect for safety and management commitment: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background

Healthcare work is one of the most accident-prone occupations globally. Nurses, especially those who work in Intensive Care Units (ICU), are very likely to experience mishaps on the job due to the complicated duties they perform. Safety performance through compliance and participation in safety is a proactive approach and a critical tool to measure the protection of employees, like these, in the workplace. Although interest in this tool has increased among hospital administrators and managers, scientific research has been limited in this area.

Aims

The study’s purposes were twofold: (1) to explore the effect of perceived respect safety on the safety performance of ICU nurses and (2) to explore the mediation effect of Management Commitment to Safety (MCS) between the relationship of perceived respect safety and safety performance.

Methods

Eight public hospitals from the Jordanian Ministry of Health (JMoH) were selected randomly using cluster sampling, and their ICU nurses were surveyed. A total of 285 nurses completed questionnaires. The SmartPLS3 bootstrapping technique was used to analyse data.

Results

The results established that the perceived respect for the safety of nurses has a significant and positive effect on their safety compliance (β = .39, p < .01) and safety participation (β = .34, p < .01), and that MCS mediated these associations.

Conclusion

The findings support the importance of developing and maintaining a culture of respect between management and employees, especially in terms of perceived respect for safety issues, and that culture will improve safety performance. The study explains the role of an active MCS, which contributes to understanding the research model fully. Practical implications for improving workplace safety also are added.

Impact statement

Recognition of the study’s findings by healthcare organisation managers would improve ICU nurses’ safety and ultimately decrease undesirable outcomes.

Keywords:

• safety
• compliance
• participation
• respect
• management commitment
• intensive care unit
• Jordan

Acknowledgement

We would like to thank the MOH in Jordan for granting us access to their staff and ICU nurses for their active participation in the study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.