Purpose: This study describes Korean nurses' work schedule characteristics and identifies their components to investigate associations of work schedule components with missed nursing care and organizational commitment.
Design: This cross-sectional secondary analysis used survey data of 1,057 nurses in 111 units at six hospitals in South Korea. Data were collected between April 2017 and March 2018.
Methods: A self-administered survey, including seven work schedule characteristic items, the Korean version of the MISSCARE Survey, and the Korean version of the Organizational Commitment Questionnaire, was employed. To construct independent components of work schedule characteristics, a principal component analysis was performed. The associations of work schedule components with missed nursing care and organizational commitment were analyzed using multiple linear regression models with generalized estimating equation methods.
Findings: The average number of daily work hours was 9.7. Nearly half of the study population worked while sick once or more per month. The two components of nurses' work schedule characteristics were "long work hours" and "lack of rest," and these components showed variations between units. Unhealthy work schedule components were linked to frequently missed nursing care and decreased organizational commitment.
Conclusions: This study showed that proper work hours and adequate rest are important to reduce missed nursing care tasks and enhance organizational commitment, both of which are critical for better patient care and organizational outcomes.
Clinical relevance: Healthcare organizations should provide adequate nursing staff and assign reasonable workloads. Furthermore, hospitals should periodically monitor the work schedule characteristics of nurses and actively intervene in cases of scheduling issues to resolve them.
Keywords: Hospital nurses; missed nursing care; organizational commitment; work schedule.
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