What are the Relationships of Quality Patient Care to Nurses' Performance, Biographical and Personality Variables?

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Abstract
Relationships among measures of quality patient care, nurse performance, biographical and personality data were studied for 387 staff nurses from 60 wards of 7 VA hospitals. Patient-care ratings were obtained by outside observers and nurses' performance ratings were obtained from three supervisory levels, peers and subordinates. Correlations between patient-care scores and performance scores were surprisingly low. Coefficients in the high twenties were rare. Education was related positively with patient care and nursing performance measures, often significantly. Age was usually related negatively to patient care and performance measures, often significantly. Higher rated nurses generally described themselves in more positive terms and as more open, helpful, energetic and people-oriented. Personality patterns of nurses rated high by various raters reflect situational needs of raters. Second-level supervisors rated nurses high who were dominant, verbal, and ascendant but cooperative participators. Head nurses rated nurses high who were not dominant but were self-controlled, responsible and cooperative in interactions with others and felt things were going well. Education was positively related to California Psychological Inventory scores except for Responsibility. Age was negatively related except for Responsibility, Self-control, and Good impression.