Adverse Events and Burnout: The Moderating Effects of Workgroup Identification and Safety Climate

Prior research has found that adverse events have significant negative consequences for the patients (first victim) and caregivers (second victim) involved such as burnout. However, research has yet to examine the consequences of adverse events on members of caregiving units. We also lack research on the effects of the personal and job resources that shape the context of how adverse events are experienced.

We test the relationship between job demands (the number of adverse events on a hospital nursing unit) and nurses' experience of burnout. We further explore the ways in which personal (workgroup identification) and job (safety climate) resources amplify or dampen this relationship. Specifically, we examine whether, and the conditions under which, adverse events affect nurse burnout.

Cross-sectional analyses of survey data on nurse burnout linked to hospital incident reporting system data on adverse event rates for the year before survey administration and survey data on workgroup identification and safety climate.

Six hundred three registered nurses from 30 nursing units in a large, urban hospital in the Midwest completed questionnaires.

Multilevel regression analysis indicated that adverse events were positively associated with nurse burnout. The effects of adverse events on nurse burnout were amplified when nurses exhibited high levels of workgroup identification and attenuated when safety climate perceptions were higher.

Adverse events have broader negative consequences than previously thought, widely affecting nurse burnout on caregiving units, especially when nurses strongly identify with their workgroup. These effects are mitigated when leaders cultivate safety climate.