Personality traits affect critical care nursing competence: A multicentre cross-sectional study

Objective: To investigate the relationship between personality traits and critical care nursing competence among critical care nurses. Research methodology/design: Multicentre cross-sectional survey using a self-report questionnaire and path modelling, from August 2017 to December 2018. Setting: Six intensive care units in Japan. Main outcome measures: We assessed relationships among the Big Five personality traits and four critical care nursing competencies in nurses. Findings: We included 211 nurses (77.7% women, 59.2% in their 20 s); 62.6% had 1–5 years’ critical care nursing experience. Among the four competencies, principles of nursing care had a direct positive effect on decision-making (0.77, p < 0.001); decision-making had a direct positive effect on collaboration (0.74, p < 0.001) and nursing interventions (0.77, p < 0.001). The personality traits openness to experience, agreeableness, and extraversion had a significantly positive effect (0.17, p < 0.05; 0.43, p < 0.001; 0.29, p < 0.01; respectively) on principles of nursing care, the key competency. The personality trait neuroticism had a direct or indirect negative effect on all four nursing competencies. Conclusion: Nursing competence in the critical care setting is affected by personality traits. Our findings can be applied in nursing education to improve competence based on individual personality traits.