The relationship between knowledge and clinical performance in novice and experienced critical care nurses

BACKGROUND: Postoperative pain is one of the major obstacles in the prevention of complications during patient recovery. Pain and its management have gained great interest among researchers, clinicians and policy-makers. PURPOSES: To explore the relationship between two variables in pain assessment (length of time after surgery and ventilator status) and medication decisions made by critical care nurses, and to identify nurses' concerns about opioid use. METHODS: A convenience sample of 71 critical care nurses participated in the survey. RESULTS: Certain patient conditions such as length of time after surgery and ventilator status affected nurses' assessment and management of pain. Nurses' knowledge about pain assessment and management may affect patient care and outcomes.

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Nurses’ Accuracy in Estimating Backrest Elevation

American Journal of Critical Care ◽

10.4037/ajcc2002.11.1.34 ◽

2002 ◽

Vol 11 (1) ◽

pp. 34-37 ◽

Cited By ~ 17

Author(s):

Amy Dillon ◽

Cindy L. Munro ◽

Mary Jo Grap

Keyword(s):

Critical Care ◽

Basic Education ◽

Critical Care Nurses ◽

Care Practice ◽

Demographic Information ◽

Convenience Sample ◽

Control And Prevention ◽

Random Number Table ◽

The Difference ◽

The Relationship

• Background Positioning patients is a key component of nursing care and can affect their morbidity and mortality. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommend that patients receiving mechanical ventilation have the head of the bed elevated 30°to 45°to prevent nosocomial pneumonia. However, use of higher backrest positions for critically ill patients is not common nursing practice. Backrest elevation may be affected by the accuracy of nurses’ estimates of patients’ positions. • Objectives To determine the difference between nurses’ estimates of bed angles and measured bed angles and to describe the relationship between nurses’ characteristics and the accuracy of their estimates. • Methods A convenience sample of 67 nurses attending the 1999 American Association of Critical-Care Nurses National Teaching Institute and Critical Care Exposition in New Orleans, La. Each subject provided demographic information and estimated 3 bed angles. The angles were preselected by using a random number table. Summary statistics were used and were categorized according to the demographic information provided by participants. Estimated angles were correlated with measured angles, and accuracies in estimating angles were correlated with demographic characteristics. • Results Nurses were accurate in estimating bed angles (correlation, 0.8488). Demographic information, including sex, age, years of practice, years of critical care practice, basic education, highest educational level, and present position had no relationship to accuracy. • Conclusions Nurses are able to estimate backrest elevation accurately. Other explanations are needed to understand why recommendations for backrest elevation are not used in practice.

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Relationship between moral distress and ethical climate with job satisfaction in nurses

Nursing Ethics ◽

10.1177/0969733017712083 ◽

2017 ◽

Vol 26 (2) ◽

pp. 346-356 ◽

Cited By ~ 9

Author(s):

Sharareh Asgari ◽

Vida Shafipour ◽

Zohreh Taraghi ◽

Jamshid Yazdani-Charati

Keyword(s):

Job Satisfaction ◽

Critical Care ◽

Social Security ◽

Ethical Climate ◽

Moral Distress ◽

Correlation Study ◽

Critical Care Nurses ◽

Quality Of Work Life ◽

Distress Scale ◽

The Relationship

Background: Moral distress and ethical climate are important issues in the workplace that appear to affect people’s quality of work life. Objectives: This study was conducted to determine the relationship of moral distress and ethical climate to job satisfaction in critical care nurses. Materials and methods: This descriptive-correlation study was conducted on 142 critical care nurses, selected from five social security hospitals in north Iran through census sampling. Data were collected using a demographic questionnaire, the Moral Distress Scale–Revised, the Olson’s Hospital Ethical Climate Survey, and the Brayfield and Rothe Job Satisfaction index. Ethical considerations: The research project was approved by the Ethics Committee of Mazandaran University of Medical Sciences and the Medical Deputy of the Social Security Organization. Findings: The mean scores obtained by the critical care nurses for moral distress, ethical climate, and job satisfaction were 87.02 ± 44.56, 3.51 ± 0.53, and 62.64 ± 9.39, respectively. Although no significant relationships were observed between moral distress and job satisfaction, the relationship between ethical climate and job satisfaction was statistically significant (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Identifying ethical stressors in the workplace and giving proper feedback to the authorities to eliminate these factors and improve the ethical climate in these workplaces can help enhance job satisfaction in nurses and lead to higher quality care.

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The relationship between ethical conflict and nurses’ personal and organisational characteristics

Nursing Ethics ◽

10.1177/0969733018791350 ◽

2018 ◽

Vol 26 (7-8) ◽

pp. 2427-2437 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Zahra Saberi ◽

Mohsen Shahriari ◽

Ahmad Reza Yazdannik

Keyword(s):

Critical Care ◽

Ethics Education ◽

Organizational Factors ◽

Educational Status ◽

Clinical Situation ◽

Critical Care Nurses ◽

Ethical Conflict ◽

Stressful Environment ◽

Wide Range ◽

The Relationship

Introduction: Critical care nurses work in a complex and stressful environment with diverse norms, values, interactions, and relationships. Therefore, they inevitably experience some levels of ethical conflict. Aim: The aim of this study is to analyze the relationship of ethical conflict with personal and organizational characteristics among critical care nurses. Methods: This descriptive-correlational study was conducted in 2017 on a random sample of 216 critical care nurses. Participants were recruited through stratified random sampling. Data collection tools were a demographic and professional characteristics questionnaire, the Ethical Conflict in Nursing Questionnaire-Critical Care Version, and the Organizational and Managerial Factors Questionnaire. The data were analyzed using the SPSS software (v. 22.0). Ethical considerations: All participants were informed about the study’s aim and were assured that participation in and withdrawal from the study would be voluntary. Findings: The mean score of exposure to ethical conflict was 201.91 ± 80.38. The highest-scored conflict-inducing clinical situation was “working with professionally incompetent nurses or nurse assistants.” Married nurses, nurses with official employment, nurses with master’s degree, and nurses with the history of attending ethics education programs had significantly higher exposure to ethical conflict than the other nurses (p < 0.05). The significant predictors of exposure to ethical conflict were marital status, educational status, reward system, organizational culture, manager’s conduct, and organizational structure and regulations (p < 0.05). These predictors accounted for 37.2% of the total variance of exposure to ethical conflict. Conclusion: Critical care nurses experience moderate levels of exposure to ethical conflict. A wide range of personal and organizational factors can contribute to such exposure, the most significant of which is the professional incompetence of nursing colleagues, nurse assistants, and physicians. Therefore, many improvements at personal and organizational levels are needed to reduce critical care nurses’ exposure to ethical conflict.

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Relationship between clinical performance and professional self-concept in critical care nurses

Frontiers of Nursing ◽

10.2478/fon-2021-0044 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 8 (4) ◽

pp. 437-443

Author(s):

Narges Eskandari ◽

Mohammad Abbasi ◽

Mohammad Abbasinia ◽

Reza Norouzadeh

Keyword(s):

Critical Care ◽

Clinical Judgment ◽

Clinical Performance ◽

Pearson Correlation ◽

Data Gathering ◽

Critical Care Nurses ◽

Self Concept ◽

Self Confidence ◽

Professional Self ◽

Staff Relations

Abstract Objective To determine the relationship between clinical performance and professional self-concept in critical care nurses. Methods This study was conducted on 308 critical care nurses. Data gathering instruments were nurses’ clinical performance questionnaire (NCPQ) and nursing professional self-concept measure (NPSCM). Independent sample t-test, one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA), and Pearson correlation coefficient were used for data analyses. Results The average age of the nurses was 33.74 ± 7.01 years. The clinical performance score of female nurses was significantly higher than male nurses. In the domain of clinical performance, clinical judgment and clinical inquiry had the highest and lowest scores, respectively. In the nurses’ professional self-concept, the highest and lowest scores were awarded to the subscales of self-confidence and staff relations, respectively. In addition, there was a significant positive correlation between self-concept and clinical performance of nurses. Conclusions Increasing professional self-concept improves the clinical performance of critical care nurses. Professional self-concept enhancement measures are recommended to improve the clinical performance of nurses in critical care units.

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