Other Titles
Rising Star Poster/Presentation - Rapid Presentation Round
Abstract
Background: In late 2019, the COVID-19 virus spread across the world causing a global pandemic that affected populations, health care workers, and the health care industry. The health and well-being of the nursing workforce received attention due to nurse attrition and the critical projected national nurse shortage. However, the concept of nurse well-being is inconsistently defined in the literature perhaps due to its fluidity. Additionally, patient adverse outcomes continue to occur in the hospital setting and are costly to patients, families, nurses, and healthcare organizations. There is limited information on the association between nurse well-being and the occurrence of adverse patient outcomes.
Purpose: The purpose of this scoping literature review was to explore evidence targeting the association between nurse well-being and specific patient outcomes.
Methods: This study utilized the databases of PubMed, CINAHL, and Scopus with a date range of 1998-2023 to identify relevant empirical evidence on associations between nurse well-being factors and adverse patient outcomes. The PRISMA Guidelines Scoping Review Extension was utilized in this review. Thematic analysis was conducted by all authors on the included articles.
Results: A scoping review of the literature demonstrated that the environment, and physical and mental health of nurses were correlated to specific adverse patient outcomes. There were multiple measures of nursing sensitive outcomes across the included studies using the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators as a benchmark. Findings iterated that nurses’ well-being can manifest through physical and mental health symptomology and be influenced by the work environment. Depression was the strongest predictor of medical errors, while presenteeism played multiple roles in patient safety and the degree to which errors are reported.
Conclusions: Patient outcomes were reviewed as discrete events in the articles examined. Inconsistency in operational definitions of relevant variables led to mixed results on key patient outcomes making conclusions across study results difficult. While the COVID-19 pandemic has waned, the health and well-being of the nursing workforce remains in jeopardy. Further study of nurse well-being and its impact on patient outcomes is critical to develop a nursing workforce that meets the needs of the population it serves and is healthy enough to weather additional public health crises.
Notes
References:
Montgomery, A. P., Azuero, A., Baernholdt, M., Loan, L. A., Miltner, R. S., Qu, H. Y., Raju, D., & Patrician, P. A. (2021). Nurse burnout predicts self-reported medication administration errors in acute care hospitals. Journal for Healthcare Quality, 43(1), 13-23. https://doi.org/10.1097/jhq.0000000000000274
Sigma Membership
Delta Beta at-Large
Type
Poster
Format Type
Text-based Document
Study Design/Type
Other
Research Approach
Other
Keywords:
Nurses -- Psychosocial Factors, Psychological Well-Being, Outcomes (Health Care), Adverse Health Care Event, Patient Safety, Well-Being
Recommended Citation
Pryor, Stacy L.; Brunner, Hope; Chan, Janet; Hanson, Ardis; Letourneau, Rayna; and Menon, Usha, "Nurse Well-Being and Patient Specific Outcomes: A Scoping review" (2026). Creating Healthy Work Environments (CHWE). 4.
https://www.sigmarepository.org/chwe/2024/posters_2024/4
Conference Name
Creating Healthy Work Environments
Conference Host
Sigma Theta Tau International
Conference Location
Washington, DC, USA
Conference Year
2024
Rights Holder
All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record. All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository. All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.
Review Type
Abstract Review Only: Reviewed by Event Host
Acquisition
Proxy-submission
Date of Issue
2026-02-13
Nurse Well-Being and Patient Specific Outcomes: A Scoping review
Washington, DC, USA
Background: In late 2019, the COVID-19 virus spread across the world causing a global pandemic that affected populations, health care workers, and the health care industry. The health and well-being of the nursing workforce received attention due to nurse attrition and the critical projected national nurse shortage. However, the concept of nurse well-being is inconsistently defined in the literature perhaps due to its fluidity. Additionally, patient adverse outcomes continue to occur in the hospital setting and are costly to patients, families, nurses, and healthcare organizations. There is limited information on the association between nurse well-being and the occurrence of adverse patient outcomes.
Purpose: The purpose of this scoping literature review was to explore evidence targeting the association between nurse well-being and specific patient outcomes.
Methods: This study utilized the databases of PubMed, CINAHL, and Scopus with a date range of 1998-2023 to identify relevant empirical evidence on associations between nurse well-being factors and adverse patient outcomes. The PRISMA Guidelines Scoping Review Extension was utilized in this review. Thematic analysis was conducted by all authors on the included articles.
Results: A scoping review of the literature demonstrated that the environment, and physical and mental health of nurses were correlated to specific adverse patient outcomes. There were multiple measures of nursing sensitive outcomes across the included studies using the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators as a benchmark. Findings iterated that nurses’ well-being can manifest through physical and mental health symptomology and be influenced by the work environment. Depression was the strongest predictor of medical errors, while presenteeism played multiple roles in patient safety and the degree to which errors are reported.
Conclusions: Patient outcomes were reviewed as discrete events in the articles examined. Inconsistency in operational definitions of relevant variables led to mixed results on key patient outcomes making conclusions across study results difficult. While the COVID-19 pandemic has waned, the health and well-being of the nursing workforce remains in jeopardy. Further study of nurse well-being and its impact on patient outcomes is critical to develop a nursing workforce that meets the needs of the population it serves and is healthy enough to weather additional public health crises.
Description
This scoping review explores concepts of nurse well-being and how they translate to adverse patient outcomes within the acute care hospital setting. Core concepts include physical, emotional, and work environments affecting Registered Nurses. Adverse patient outcomes are directly related to those benchmarked by the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators.