Association between nurses' burnout, hospital patient safety climate and quality of nursing care

Design: Cross-sectional.

Methods: 117 nurses completed the Copenhagen Burnout Inventory and the Hospital Survey on patient safety culture. Pearson correlation and linear regression analysis was conducted to assess associations between variables.

Results: Higher level of burnout significantly met with lower grade of patient safety, overall perception of patient safety, higher frequency of adverse events recorded, and medication errors. The overall perception of safety was positively related to teamwork within hospital units and non-punitive responses to error. The frequency of recorded events was significantly negatively associated with hospital management support and supervisors’ activities, and positively with feedback. Medication errors correlated positively with organizational learning and continuous safety improvement and negatively with staffing. Significant relationships have been identified between management support, non-punitive responses to error, teamwork within hospital units, and selected adverse events.

Conclusion: Enhancement of the patient safety climate and nurses’ mental health are important patient safety improvements in healthcare organisations.