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Learning Objective 1: The learner will be able to understand the interactive effects of nurse conscientiousness and neuroticism on patient-perceived care quality.
Learning Objective 2: The learner will be able to perform similarly designed studies to investigate the influence of nurse traits on patient-perceived care outcomes.
Methods: Items from the Mini-Marker scale were used to measure conscientiousness and neuroticism. The SERVQUAL scale was used to measure patient-perceived care quality. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in eighty-nine units in two medical centers. A total of 313 pairs of nurses and patients were chosen using stratified random sampling. Among them, 98.1% were female, 95.5% were 20-40 years old, and 96.8% had bachelor degrees.
Results: Three reliability indices, two convergent validity criteria, two discriminant validity criteria and ten fit indices were applied to confirm adequate measurement quality. The significance of interaction effects was found by regression analysis. The sample was medium split into high-neuroticism and low-neuroticism groups. Conscientiousness was inversely associated with patient-perceived care quality for high-neuroticism nurses (β=|.20, p<.05) but not for low-neuroticism nurses (β=.10, p>.05). Such findings contribute to the field in two respects. First, Teng et al. (2007) only examined the main effects of nurse traits on care quality. The present study further examined the interaction effects. Second, whereas Witt (2002) examined the interactive effects of service provider traits, this study innovatively examined the interactive effects of traits in health professionals.
Conclusion: Conscientiousness and neuroticism of nurses have interactive effects on patient-perceived care quality.