Relationships between nurse managers’ work activities, nurses’ job satisfaction, patient satisfaction, and medication errors at the unit level: a correlational study

BACKGROUND: Nurse managers play a critical role in enhancing nursing and patient outcomes. The work of nurse managers, who can be described as middle-managers at health care organizations, is complex and changes on a daily basis. Only a few studies have clarified how nurse managers divide their time across various work activities. This study aimed to describe the relationships between nurse managers’ work activities, nurses’ job satisfaction, patient satisfaction, and medication errors at the hospital unit level. METHODS: A cross-sectional and correlational study design was used. The data were collected from nurse managers (n = 29), nursing staff (n = 306), and patients (n = 651) from 28 units across three Finnish acute care hospitals between April and November 2017. In addition, data concerning medication errors (n = 468) over one calendar year (2017) were acquired from the hospitals’ incident reporting register. Analysis of covariance (ANCOVA) was used to estimate relationships between data from subareas of Nurse Managers’ Work Content Questionnaire, Kuopio University Hospital Job Satisfaction Scale, and Revised Humane Caring Scale, along with medication error reports. A significance level of 95% was applied when estimating the covariances between variables. Unstandardized regression coefficients (B) were used to explain the relationships between variables. RESULTS: Multiple relationships between nurse managers’ work activities, nurses’ job satisfaction, patient satisfaction, and medication errors were identified. Nurse managers’ work activities had both positive and negative relationships on the other studied variables. The Requiring factors of work (p < .001) subarea of nurses’ job satisfaction, total patient satisfaction (p < .001), and medication errors (p < .001) were identified as the variables most significantly affected by other factors. CONCLUSIONS: The findings suggest that nurse managers should focus on improving nursing practices by managing and organizing nurses’ work in a way that makes their employees feel supported, motivated and secure. Furthermore, nurse managers should adopt a leadership style that emphasizes safe and patient-centered care. The results also suggest that the administration of today’s health care organizations should actively evaluate nurse managers’ share of work activities to ensure that their daily work is in line with the organizational goals. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12913-021-06288-5.