Nursing governance and clinical error control

Abstract

Purpose – This study aims to fathom the role of nursing governance as a mechanism to activate the chain effect from corporate social responsibility (CSR) through psychological contract to knowledge sharing, which in turn reduces clinical errors in hospitals in the Vietnam context. Clinical errors not merely result from human factors but also from mechanisms which influence human factors. Design/methodology/approach – The clues for the research model were established through structural equation modeling-based analysis of cross-sectional data from 233 nurses of Vietnam-based hospitals. Findings – Research findings unveiled the positive correlation between nursing governance and ethical CSR as well as the negative correlations between nursing governance and legal CSR or economic CSR. Ethical CSR was found to have positive effect on psychological contract, whereas legal or economic CSR was found to have negative effect on psychological contract. The chain effects from psychological contract through knowledge sharing to clinical error control were also attested in this inquiry. Originality/value – Research results have contributed to literature in some ways, for example, expanding health-care quality and patient safety literature through the chain of antecedents (nursing governance, CSR, psychological contract and knowledge sharing) to clinical error control, underscoring the role of psychological contract in cultivating knowledge sharing and adding organizational outcomes such as knowledge sharing and clinical error control to the nursing governance literature.