Factors Related to Excellence in the Nursing Practices of Nurses Working in Hospitals

Abstract

To identify factors associated with excellence in nursing practices among nurses, a self-rated questionnaire consisting of the Excellence in the Nursing Excellence Scale in Clinical Practice (NES), Japanese version of Blau’s Career Commitment Scale (JCCS), affective organizational commitment Scale, personal Factors, and workplace environment factors was administered to 661 nurses working in public hospitals in the Tohoku and Kanto regions of Japan. Responses were obtained from 453 participants with no deficits or duplications in age, gender, or NES (valid response rate: 68.5%). The mean age and length of nursing experience of these respondents were 38.0±9.5 and 16.2±9.1 years, respectively. The mean total scores for the NES, the JCCS, and the affective organizational commitment scale were 121.3±19.2, 2.74±0.8, and 3.01±0.7, respectively. The results of multiple regression analysis (adjusted R²=0.495) showed that those who had compassion for their patients (β=0.221), those who reflected on their nursing practice (β=0.179), those who were confident in their clinical decisions (β=0.136), those who were considering using research findings (β=0.129), and those who had approval from their colleagues (β=0.128), those who participate in conferences and trainings to obtain the latest information (β=0.115), and those who have mentored new graduate nurses for one year (β=0.100) were found to have high excellence in nursing practice. To improve the quality of nursing practice, it is necessary to provide support based on these results.