Relationship between Head Nurse’s Supervision Style and Registered Nurse’s Care for Patient Safety in Tertiary Hospitals

Abstract

This research aimed to study the relationship between head nurse’s supervision style and professional nurse’s care, for patient safety in tertiary hospitals in Nonthaburi, Thailand. Participants were  250 Professional Nurses. Tools used were questionnaires including: demographic data, head nurse’s supervision style, professional nurse’s care for patient safety, ascertaining problems and recommendations. Good quality results were found for both the head nurse’s supervision style (IOC = 0.93, reliability = 0.98) and professional nurse’s care for patient safety questionnaires (IOC = 0.92, reliability = 0.80). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Chi-square test, and content analysis.   

         Results showed that head nurse’s supervision style and professional nurse’s care for patient safety were at a high level. The head nurse’s supervision style had no significant relationship with professional nurse’s care for patient safety. Age and position had a significantly positive relationship with professional nurse’s care for patient safety (p = .027 and .002, respectively). Problems raised by nurses included: head nurses had a lot of administrative tasks outside of the wards (52.87%), not everyone can join in meetings (5.55%), there was no clear schedule for meetings (2.77%), no further suggestions from head nurses when they were supervising. Recommendation for research utilization is that there should be regular supervision to motivate nurses to perform their task correctly.