The effect of internet addiction on surgical nurses' malpractice tendencies: Turkish sample

This study aimed to determine the effect of surgical nurses' internet addiction on their malpractice tendencies.

The descriptive cross-sectional study included 1051 nurses working in the surgical awards of 10 hospitals in Istanbul. Data were collected using a descriptive characteristics form, the Internet Addiction Scale, and the Malpractice Tendency Scale. An increase in the score on the internet addiction scale indicates that internet addiction increases. In contrast, an increase in the score on the malpractice tendency scale indicates that malpractice tendency decreases. Data were analyzed using independent groups t-test, one-way ANOVA test, Pearson correlation and linear regression analyzes with IBM SPSS Statistics version 22.0 software.

A weak negative correlation was found between the surgical nurses' total scores on the Internet Addiction Scale and Malpractice Tendency Scale (r=-0.422 p < 0.001). Internet addiction total score was also negatively correlated with malpractice tendency subscale scores for medication and transfusion administration safety (r=-0.450 p < 0.001); infection prevention (r=-0.416 p < 0.001); patient monitoring, device, and material safety (r=-0.321 p < 0.001); fall prevention (r=-0.325 p < 0.001), and communication (r=-0.332 p ≤ 0.001). In linear regression analysis, an increase in internet addiction overall and in the lack of control subscale was associated with greater malpractice tendency (ß=-0.422 and ß=-0.243, respectively). Internet addiction explained a total of 17.7% of the total change in malpractice tendency (R² = 0.177).

Surgical nurses showed increased malpractice tendency as their internet addiction level increased. This relationship was seen in all domains of malpractice, including medication and transfusion administration safety, infection and fall prevention, communication, and patient monitoring, device, and material safety. It is recommended that in-service training be planned for conscious internet use to limit the time nurses spend on the internet during working hours.