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Nurses’ response to parents’ ‘speaking‐up’ efforts to ensure their hospitalized child's safety: an attribution theory perspective
Author(s) -
Bsharat Sondos,
DrachZahavy Anat
Publication year - 2017
Publication title -
journal of advanced nursing
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.948
H-Index - 155
eISSN - 1365-2648
pISSN - 0309-2402
DOI - 10.1111/jan.13282
Subject(s) - attribution , consistency (knowledge bases) , perspective (graphical) , patient safety , variance (accounting) , nursing , psychology , affect (linguistics) , medicine , applied psychology , social psychology , computer science , health care , business , accounting , communication , artificial intelligence , economics , economic growth
Aim To understand how attribution processes (control and stability), which the nurse attributes to parental involvement in maintaining child safety, determine the nurse's response to a safety alert. Background Participation of parents in maintaining their child's safety is shown to reduce the incidence of and risk of clinical errors. Unless nurses respond appropriately to parents’ safety alerts, this potential source of support could diminish. Design A 2 (controllability: high vs. low) × 2 (consistency: high vs. low) factorial design. Methods Data were collected during the period 2013–2014 in paediatric wards. Four variants of scenarios were created corresponding to the different combinations of these variables. A total of 126 nurses read a scenario and completed self‐report questionnaires measuring their response to the parent's safety alert. Additional data were collected about the manipulation check, safety norms in the ward and demographic variables. Data were analysed using analysis of variance. Findings Results showed a main effect of stability and a significant two‐way interaction effect of stability and controllability, on a nurse's tendency to help the parent and fix the safety problem. Furthermore, safety norms were significantly related to nurses’ response. Conclusion These findings contribute to the understanding of antecedents that affect nurses’ responses to parents’ speaking‐up initiatives: whether nurses will reject or heed the alert. Theoretical and practical implications for promoting parents’ engagement in their safety are discussed.