Interactive effects of nurse-experienced time pressure and burnout on patient safety: A cross-sectional survey

Background: Global nursing shortages have exacerbated time pressure and burnout among nurses. Despite the well-established correlation between burnout and patient safety, no studies have addressed how time pressure among nurses and patient safety are related and whether burnout moderates such a relation. Objectives: This study investigated how time pressure and the interaction of time pressure and nursing burnout affect patient safety. Design-setting participants: This cross-sectional study surveyed 458 nurses in 90 units of two medical centres in northern Taiwan. Methods: Nursing burnout was measured by the Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Service Scale. Patient safety was inversely measured by six items on frequency of adverse events. Time pressure was measured by five items. Regressions were used for the analysis. Results: While the results of regression analyses suggest that time pressure did not significantly affect patient safety (β=-.01, p>.05), time pressure and burnout had an interactive effect on patient safety (β=-.08, p<.05). Specifically, for nurses with high burnout (n=223), time pressure was negatively related to patient safety (β=-.10, p<.05). Conclusion: Time pressure adversely affected patient safety for nurses with a high level of burnout, but not for nurses with a low level of burnout.