The Relationship Between Staffing, Nurses' Emotional Exhaustion, and Adverse Patient Events in Critical Care Units in Sultanate of Oman.

Ensuring safe practices remains a top priority for healthcare policymakers. However, limited evidence has examined the link between individual, work-related factors, and patient safety within critical care units in Oman. To assess the relationship between staffing levels, job-related emotional exhaustion, and adverse patient events among nurses working in critical care units. A cross-sectional study was conducted to collect data from critical care nurses in Oman. Nurses were recruited using a stratified proportional sampling method. A total of 694 critical care nurses participated in the study. More than half (64.1%) of the critical care nurses experienced higher levels of emotional exhaustion. Significant predictors of adverse patient events included nurse staffing level ( = 0.09, < 0.001), emotional exhaustion ( = 0.25, < 0.001), hospital type (being affiliated with nonteaching hospitals) (=0.021), and nationality ( = -0.15, < 0.001). The occurrence of nurse-reported adverse events was associated with several key variables, including nurse staffing levels, emotional exhaustion, hospital type, and nationality. To improve patient safety, healthcare policymakers should prioritize optimizing nurse staffing levels and implement strategies to reduce emotional exhaustion, particularly in nonteaching hospitals and among specific nurse demographics.