The Relationship Between Staffing, Nurses’ Emotional Exhaustion, and Adverse Patient Events in Critical Care Units in Sultanate of Oman

Background: Ensuring safe practices remains a top priority for healthcare policymakers. However, limited evidence has examined the link between individual, work-related factors, and patient safety within critical care units in Oman.

Aim: To assess the relationship between staffing levels, job-related emotional exhaustion, and adverse patient events among nurses working in critical care units.

Design: A cross-sectional study was conducted to collect data from critical care nurses in Oman. Nurses were recruited using a stratified proportional sampling method.

Results: A total of 694 critical care nurses participated in the study. More than half (64.1%) of the critical care nurses experienced higher levels of emotional exhaustion. Significant predictors of adverse patient events included nurse staffing level (r = 0.09, p < 0.001), emotional exhaustion (β = 0.25, p < 0.001), hospital type (being affiliated with nonteaching hospitals) (p = 0.021), and nationality (β = −0.15, p < 0.001).

Conclusion: The occurrence of nurse-reported adverse events was associated with several key variables, including nurse staffing levels, emotional exhaustion, hospital type, and nationality.

Implications for Nursing Management: To improve patient safety, healthcare policymakers should prioritize optimizing nurse staffing levels and implement strategies to reduce emotional exhaustion, particularly in nonteaching hospitals and among specific nurse demographics.