Nurse fatigue threatens both nurse and patient safety; fatigue affects nurses' neurocognitive functioning and hinders their work performance. The authors assessed the association of work and non-work factors with acute and chronic fatigue and intershift recovery among hospital nurses working 12-hour shifts. This study used survey data from 80 nurses who provided full-time direct patient care on medical-surgical and critical care units in a large teaching hospital. Psychological job demands (e.g., work load and social support from supervisor or coworker) were significantly associated with acute and chronic fatigue and intershift recovery. Rotating shifts were significantly related to acute fatigue. Findings suggest the need for a comprehensive approach to fatigue management, including organizational support to provide healthful work schedules and favorable nursing work environments, fewer psychological and physical demands, and assistance to improve nurses' sleep quality and quantity.

Background: There has been little research regarding nursing teamwork, despite its important role in multidisciplinary teamwork in healthcare settings and its significance in ensuring high-quality nursing care. This study aimed to determine the teamwork levels of Korean nurses and examine the relationship between nursing teamwork and patient-centered care while controlling for other individual and work-related factors. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional analysis of online survey data. The study population consisted of 992 Korean registered nurses employed in hospitals who had a minimum of six months of clinical experience. We performed latent profile analysis to identify latent teamwork subgroups based on response patterns. We performed analysis of variance and Chi-square tests to examine differences in individual and work-related characteristics according to teamwork group. We used multiple linear regression to investigate how nursing teamwork could affect patient-centered care after controlling for covariates. Results: We identified three nursing teamwork subgroups: low, mid, and high. Nurses with a higher level of teamwork in their units tended to work fewer hours with more adequate staffing (F = 5.88, p = 0.003 for working hours; F = 7.68, p < 0.001 for staffing adequacy). There was a significant positive association between nursing teamwork and patient-centered care after controlling for personal and work-related characteristics. Compared with low teamwork, mid and high teamwork increased patient-centered care scores by 0.32 (95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.23–0.40) and 0.57 (95% CI = 0.48–0.66), respectively. Conclusion: Our findings indicate that enhancing nursing teamwork can serve as an effective strategy for promoting patient-centered care. Providing nurse education and training to equip nurses with the necessary knowledge and skills for effective teamwork is a crucial step. Additionally, fostering management commitment to create a supportive working environment, including adequate staffing, can facilitate improved nursing teamwork and, subsequently, patient-centered care.

Nurses are key professionals in healthcare sectors, whose job attitude is closely associated with patient health outcomes and safety. Job crafting describes how workers shape their tasks to find a sense of meaning and value in their work. This study aimed to examine the associations of happiness at the individual level and nursing work environments at the organizational level with job crafting among hospital nurses in Korea. This cross-sectional study analyzed survey data from 220 nurses working in four Korean hospitals. Multiple linear regression modeling was used to examine associations among the study variables. Nurses who were satisfied with their lives were significantly more likely to exhibit higher levels of job crafting (B = 0.07, p < 0.001). Nursing work environments had no significant association with nurses’ job crafting. In comparison with nurses working in general units, operating room nurses were significantly less likely to craft their job (B = −0.35, p = 0.001). Organizational support should be established to improve nurses’ happiness and job crafting. Hospitals should provide various opportunities for education and training to strengthen job crafting.