Impacts of Occupational Cognitive Failure and Subjective Workload on Patient Safety Incidents among Intensive Care Units Nurses

BACKGROUND: Life-saving treatments and high-quality care techniques increase the opportunity for patient safety incidents in Intensive care unit. AIMS: This descriptive correlation study aimed to determine the impacts of occupational cognitive failure and subjective workload on patient safety incidents among intensive care units nurses. METHODS AND MATERIAL: One hundred seventy-six nurses working in intensive care units were included using census sampling. The data collection tools consisted of demographic and occupational data, standard questionnaires of subjective workload (NASA-TLX) and occupational cognitive failure (OCFQ), and a question about frequency of patient safety incidents. Data analysis was performed using Mann–Whitney and Kruskal–Wallis, Spearman rank correlation coefficient, and logistic regression tests. RESULTS: Occupational cognitive failure (OR = 1.043), subjective workload in dimension of “performance” (OR = 0.982), age (OR = 0.947), and gender (OR = 3.726) were important predictive variables of patient safety incidents. CONCLUSIONS: Nursing mangers and policymakers can consider the factors identified for staffing nurses and development of patient safety programs.