[Nursing workplace bullying and turnover intention: an exploration of associated factors at a medical center in Southern Taiwan].

BACKGROUND: The chronic shortage of nursing staffs in hospitals continues to increasingly and negatively impact the ability of medical care systems to deliver effective care and ensure the safety of patients. Bullying is one factor known to exacerbate turnover in the nursing workplace. PURPOSE: This study explores workplace bullying and turnover intention among nurses working at a medical center in Southern Taiwan. METHODS: A cross-sectional and correlation research design was conducted using the Negative Acts Questionnaire-Revised (NAQ-R) and the Turnover Intention Questionnaire. A convenience, purposive sample of 708 nurses was recruited. Inclusion criteria included: holding an RN license, able to communicate in both Mandarin and Hokkienese, >6 months of clinical experience, and an NAQ-R score higher than 23. Data were analyzed using SPSS19.0 software. RESULTS: Approximately 85% of participants had experienced some degree of workplace bullying during the previous 6-month period. The trend of the turnover intention tended to the right at a high degree. A moderate, positive, and significant correlation was found between turnover intention and bullying total scores (r=.39, p<.05). Multiple regression showed bullying as the most important predicator of turnover intention (15.10%). CONCLUSIONS/IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: Based on our findings, we suggest that nurses should enhance their awareness of the negative consequences of workplace bullying. Furthermore, hospitals should implement appropriate mechanisms to decrease the phenomenon of inter-staff bullying, improve the nursing workplace environment, and reduce the rate of turnover intention.

[The interpreter: crossing communication barriers between healthcare providers and international patients].

As a result of the effects of globalization, cross-racial and cross-cultural marriages have become common phenomena in Taiwan society. The rapid increase in the number of immigrants coming to Taiwan has created a society that will need to confront the impact of the arrival of people from different cultures and the problems associated therewith. These challenges must also be faced by healthcare providers and patients. Since communication is a crucial aspect of healthcare situations, the cost of medical care can be very high and treatment may be of limited effect if communication between patients and healthcare providers is not sufficiently comprehensive. The use of an interpreter is therefore a popular solution to facilitate communication between healthcare providers and patients. The quality of interpretation, however, depends on the training of the interpreter, and will have a great influence on the outcome of health care. Without effective communication, the quality of health care cannot be improved. The question of how to provide continual monitoring of the quality of interpretation and establish a comprehensive training course for interpreters should therefore be further investigated in clinical research.

Measuring patient satisfaction as an outcome of nursing care at a teaching hospital of southern Taiwan.

Patient satisfaction has become an important indicator to measure the quality of care. Nursing has long used outcome measures to evaluate health care. The study assessed the patient satisfaction of patients from medical and surgical units at a teaching hospital of southern Taiwan. Of the 806 near-discharge patients from medical or surgical units approached to participate in the study, a total of 477 patients returned questionnaires for a response rate of 59%. The total mean score for all the patients' satisfaction score was 4.28 (SD = 0.53). In general it reflected that the patients were satisfied. There was no significant difference between the patient demographic variables, primary nurse's age, marriage, and total working experience on any of the subscales. Results of this study provided evidence that primary nurse's unit working experience can influence patient satisfaction (P value < .05).