When safety climate is not enough: Examining the moderating effects of psychosocial hazards on nurse safety performance

Aim: To examine the association between components of safety climate and psychosocial hazards with safe work behaviours and test the moderating effects of psychosocial hazards on the safety climate-safety performance relationships.

Background: The effects of a strong safety climate on safety performance are well cited, however, the conditions that have an impact on this relationship warrant attention. While the psychosocial hazards commonly reported by nurses are predictors of well-being and job attitudes, evidence suggests that these may also place boundaries on the effects of safety climate on safe work practices.

Design: This study used a cross-sectional design to collect data from 146 nurses.

Methods: Participants were recruited through convenience sampling and snowball sampling methods in 2017. Nurses completed an online questionnaire and received a $5 e-gift card as compensation. SPSS v.23 and PROCESS v3.0 were used to analyse the data.

Results/findings: A strong safety climate was positively associated with nurses' safety performance. While psychosocial hazards did not predict safety performance, they did moderate the safety climate-performance relationship. High levels of perceived stressors weakened the association between promoting two-way safety communication, the use and implementation of procedures to promote safe work practices and management's endorsement of health and safety with safe work performance.

Conclusion: The positive effects of safety climate on nurses' safety performance are contingent on the levels of psychosocial hazards nurses experience. When aiming to improve safety performance among nurses, it is important for efforts to also focus on the psychosocial conditions of the work environment.