Openness to experience, work experience and patient safety

The purpose of this study is to examine how the interaction between nurse openness and work experience is related to patient safety.

No study has yet examined the interactions between these, and how openness and work experience jointly impact patient safety.

This study adopts a cross-sectional design, using self-reported work experience, perceived time pressure and measures of patient safety, and was conducted in a major medical centre. The sample consisted of 421 full-time nurses from all available units in the centre. Proportionate random sampling was used. Patient safety was measured using the self-reported frequency of common adverse events. Openness was self-rated using items identified in the relevant literature.

Nurse openness is positively related to the patient safety construct (B = 0.08, P = 0.03). Moreover, work experience reduces the relation between openness and patient safety (B = -0.12, P < 0.01).

The relationship between openness, work experience and patient safety suggests a new means of improving patient care in a health system setting.

Nurse managers may enhance patient safety by assessing nurse openness and assigning highly open nurses to duties that make maximum use of that trait.