Enhancing Patient Safety: The impact of nursing work life quality on nurse performance in hospital inpatient wards

Lower performance of nurses is capable of hindering the achievement of organizational goals. The health work carried out by nurses individually and in groups should be properly executed to improve work performance and service quality. Additionally, work life quality is among the essential factors requiring significant improvement to ensure that nurses achieve satisfaction for fulfilling individual needs. A high quality of nursing work life is essential in optimizing the general effectiveness and efficiency of healthcare delivery. Nurses are commonly expected to perform optimally in implementing safety measures, particularly in inpatient settings where care complexity and the potential for clinical risks are significantly higher. Therefore, this study aimed to determine the relationship between work life quality and performance of nurses in implementing patient safety. A quantitative study method with a cross-sectional design was used, and the examined population were nurses in the inpatient ward at a private hospital in Karawang, West Java, Indonesia. A sample size of 111 nurses were selected through total sampling, then performance questionnaire and Quality of Nursing Work Life (QNWL) scale were used to collect data for analysis with the chi-square test. The results showed that QNWL exceeded half of the high category, and more than half of nurses had good performance in implementing patient safety. QNWL was found to have a significant relationship with performance in implementing patient safety (P Value 0.003 <0.05). This should be improved through the provision of support from hospital management, specifically in setting appropriate workloads. The improvement of QNWL could also be achieved through management participation in making decisions for patient and adjusting work outside of the primary nursing duties, as well as conducting performance programs, particularly voluntary engagement in patient safety.