The Effect of Nurses' Job Characteristics on Missed Nursing Care in Medical and Surgical Departments in Selected Slovenian Hospitals-A Cross-Sectional Study.

AIM

The aim was to examine the extent of missed nursing care (MNC), the reasons behind it and the contribution of nurses' job characteristics to MNC in Slovenian hospitals.

METHODS

A cross-sectional explorative research was conducted. The BERNCA-R and part B of the MISSCARE questionnaire were used. A total of 880 nurses from 10 hospitals in Slovenia participated with completed questionnaires; of those, 57.6% were healthcare assistants and 42.4% were registered nurses. Univariate, bivariate and multivariate analyses were performed.

RESULTS

In the five-component solution of the MNC, the activities of 'Monitoring' (M=2.09; SD=0.909) and 'Caring, support, activation, education' (M=2.03; SD=0.822) were the most frequently missed, with the leading item being 'Conversation with a patient or their family' (M=2.45; SD=0.940). Labour resources (M=3.44; SD=0.642) were the most common reason for MNC, with inadequate number of staff (M=3.75; SD=0.660) as the leading item. The stepwise multiple regression model showed that the more significant the labour resources are, the more frequently MNC occurs in all five dimensions (p=0.000-0.002). Most job characteristics proved to be significant; however, as satisfaction with wages, years of employment and assessment of the quality of nursing care increase, MNC decreases in all five dimensions.

CONCLUSIONS

This study enables healthcare decision makers and managers at the national level and in healthcare organisations to understand the problem of missed nursing care and to plan and implement changes accordingly.