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 neuroti-cism 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. (c) 2021 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.