The relationship between professional commitment and anxiety with human error in the operating room nurses: a cross-sectional study

The operating room is a stressful environment where stress and anxiety can lead to human errors, jeopardizing patient safety. Professional commitment is believed to play a significant role in the quality of care provided and in reducing errors. Therefore, this study aims to explore the connection between professional commitment, anxiety, and human errors among operating room nurses. In this descriptive cross-sectional study, the research population consisted of all operating room nurses (both scrub and circulating) working in hospitals affiliated with Shiraz University of Medical Sciences. The sample was selected based on convenience. The instruments used included a demographic information questionnaire, the Spielberger Trait Anxiety Questionnaire, a professional commitment questionnaire, and a researcher-made questionnaire on human medical errors in the operating room. Statistical data analysis was conducted using SPSS software and descriptive statistics methods (mean and standard deviation), as well as the Spearman correlation coefficient test. Significant associations were observed between professional commitment and human errors, as well as between anxiety and human errors among the participating operating room nurses (r = − 0.155, p = 0.011 and r = 0.168, p = 0.008, respectively). Additionally, professional commitment and anxiety appeared to be modest predictors of human errors (p < 0.001 and p = 0.013, respectively), suggesting that higher professional commitment may be related to lower levels of human error, while higher anxiety may be associated with increased errors. The findings of the present study indicate significant associations between professional commitment and human errors, as well as between anxiety and human errors among the participating nurses. These results suggest that interventions aimed at reducing anxiety and enhancing professional commitment may help to mitigate the risk of human errors in the operating room.