Novice and advanced beginner nurses’ patient safety management activities: Mediating effects of informal learning

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to identify the effects of the organizational factors and nursing competency of novice and advanced beginner nurses on patient safety management activities, and to confirm the mediating effect of informal learning. Methods: Responses to questionnaires from 169 novice and advanced beginner nurses in South Korea were analyzed. For model fit and hypothesis, maximum likelihood method and covariance structure modeling were used, and bootstrapping was used for significance level. Organizational factors and nursing competencies were independent variables. Informal learning and patient safety management activities were mediator and dependent variables, respectively. Results: Informal learning exhibited a partial mediating effect on the relationship between nursing competency and patient safety management activities and completely mediated the relationship between organizational factors and patient safety management activities. Conclusion: In order to improve the patient safety management activities of novice and advanced nurses, there is a need for interventions that can improve organizational changes and individual nursing competency. Based on this, it will be possible to increase patient safety management activities by developing educational programs including informal learning and improving patient safety culture.