How nursing practice environments limit implicit rationing of care and nurse-assessed adverse events: the role of flow at work

Background

The nursing practice environment is beneficial in curbing implicit rationing of nursing care and adverse patient events. However, the underlying mechanisms of these relationships remain unexplored.

Aim

To test whether flow at work mediates the relationship between the nursing practice environment, implicit rationing of nursing care, and nurse-assessed adverse patient events.

Methods

This cross-sectional study involved 231 nurses from five hospitals in Port Said, Egypt. The participants completed Arabic-translated versions of the Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index, the Work-Related Flow Inventory, the Perceived Implicit Rationing of Nursing Care instrument, and the Adverse Patient Events scale. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypothetical model.

Results

The favorable nursing practice environment positively predicted nurses’ flow at work (β = 0.64, p < 0.001), while inversely predicting implicit rationing of nursing care (β = -0.23, p = 0.014) and adverse patient events (β = -0.35, p < 0.001). Nurses’ flow at work inversely predicted implicit rationing of nursing care (β = -0.30, p = 0.002) and adverse patient events (β = -0.29, p = 0.002). Moreover, nurses’ flow at work acted as a mediator, linking the nursing practice environment to the rationing of nursing care and adverse patient events, with 500 bootstrap results for the indirect effects (β = -0.24, p = 0.001, 95% CI: -0.43 to -0.09; and β = -0.44, p = 0.003, 95% CI: -0.79 to -0.16, respectively).

Conclusion

Nurses working in a favorable nursing practice environment are more likely to experience flow at work, limiting implicit rationing of nursing care and adverse patient events.

Implications for nursing management

Nursing administrators should strive to create a healthy nursing practice environment to foster nurses’ flow and thereby reduce the frequency of implicit rationing of nursing care and adverse patient events.