Development of a Subjective Workload Assessment for Nurses: A Human Factors Approach
| Autor: | Denise Neill, Gail C. Davis |
|---|---|
| Rok vydání: | 2015 |
| Předmět: |
Adult
Male Psychometrics media_common.quotation_subject Nurses Pilot Projects Workload Patient safety Nursing Perception Health care Humans Quality (business) General Nursing media_common business.industry Cognition General Medicine Middle Aged Texas Skill mix Survey data collection Female business Psychology |
| Zdroj: | Journal of Nursing Measurement. 23:452-473 |
| ISSN: | 1945-7049 1061-3749 |
| Popis: | Background and Purpose: Research has revealed nurses' perception that traditional workload measures do not adequately capture the complexity of workload. Using a human factors approach to address the multiple and complex dimensions from the subjective perception of the worker, the Subjective Workload Assessment for Nurses (SWAN) was developed. Methods: Survey data from 188 medical-surgical registered nurses were used to establish the instrument's psychometric properties. Results: SWAN Sections 1, 2, and 3; General Information Form Section 1; and the Nursing Texas Load Index demonstrated internal consistency with this sample. Findings supported interrelationships between activity complexity, performance circumstances, and individual characteristics described in the literature. Conclusion: Further study is needed to refine the SWAN and to establish psychometric properties with nurses in other practice areas.Keywords: nursing workload; human factors; subjective mental workload; cognitive workload; mental workloadChanges in the nursing skill mix and increasing demands on nurses employed in both the hospital and the community have resulted primarily because of decreases in length of stay for hospitalized patients along with a steady increase in the complexities of health care and associated technologies (Aiken, Clarke, & Sloane, 2002; American Nurses Association, 2001; Gregg, 1993; Simpson, 2004; Stone et al., 2007; Stone et al., 2003). Increasing patient acuity levels and multiple technology advances have resulted in most nursing positions today, placing a greater emphasis on cognitive rather than motor performance (National Research Council Staff, 1995). Multiple patient safety threats were identified in the Institute of Medicine's report, Keeping Patients Safe: Transforming the Work Environment of Nurses (Page, 2003). Of importance is examining the nurses' workload and work environment in an effort to maintain and increase the quality and safety of care provided. Other recent studies have supported the influence of the nurses' work environment on patient safety outcomes (Holden et al., 2011; Liu, Lee, Chia, Chi, & Yin, 2012). Understanding nurses' perceptions of work and the work environment is crucial to understanding nurse fatigue and is critical to the safety of the patient and the nurse (Bae & Farby, 2014). This study proposed to develop a tool-Subjective Workload Assessment for Nurses (SWAN)-that would increase this understanding and more accurately measure workload from the nurse's perspective.BACKGROUNDCognitive psychology and human factors researchers have expended considerable resources across disciplines to separate workload into physical and mental components with the underlying premise that the worker is the only one who can truly describe the amount of work involved within an assignment. Work is fundamentally a unique quality identified by the individual worker (Hart & Staveland, 1988; Havens & Vasey, 2003; Holden et al., 2011).Because researchers have attempted to quantify workload demands, a popular approach has been to ask the participants to report how hard they are working (Gregg, 1993; Reid & Nygren, 1988). Human factors, or human-centered, research has continued to rely on subjective workload measures because of the view that only the worker truly knows how much work is required to meet demands. If the worker declares there is too much work associated with a given system or function, ways to reduce the workload need exploration.Complexity of WorkloadIndividual perception of the work required can vary, even when the environment and expectations are similar. These individual differences in perception influence the subjective determination of workload (Havens & Vasey, 2003; Kahneman, 1973). Workload, therefore, is more than an intrinsic activity, task, or property; it becomes apparent as the requirements interact and are made known.Subjective Workload MeasurementVarious methodologies and approaches (e. … |
| Databáze: | OpenAIRE |
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