Do trained nurses feel more psychologically safe?-Results from a multi-level modelling approach.

Area of Science:

• Nursing
• Healthcare Management
• Organizational Psychology

Background:

• Psychological safety is crucial for healthcare teams, influencing performance and well-being.
• Understanding factors affecting psychological safety among nurses is essential for improving work environments.
• Additional training may impact nurses' perceptions of safety within their work units.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate the relationship between nurses' psychological safety and their engagement in additional training.
• To determine if specific types of training (managerial vs. clinical) have differential effects on psychological safety.

Main Methods:

• Cross-sectional survey data collected from 1,239 nurses and 75 leading nurses in German neonatal intensive care units (September 2015 - August 2016).
• Multi-level modeling was employed to account for unit-level variations and dependencies.

Main Results:

• Additional managerial training as a charge nurse was a positive predictor of psychological safety.
• Additional clinical training in pediatric intensive care showed a negative association with psychological safety.
• A higher proportion of nurses with additional clinical training within a team was associated with increased psychological safety, mitigating the negative individual effect.

Conclusions:

• Managerial training positively influences nurse psychological safety.
• Clinical specialization training may inadvertently reduce psychological safety, but team-level effects can be protective.
• Healthcare organizations should consider the type and distribution of additional training to foster psychological safety.