Abstract
Background and purpose: To evaluate the ability of the Well-Being Index (WBI) to stratify distress and well-being (high quality of life [QOL]) in nurse practitioners and physician assistants (NPs and PAs) and identify those whose degree of distress place them at an increased risk for medical error or turnover. Methods: A national sample of NPs and PAs completed a survey that included the WBI and instruments to measure QOL, fatigue, burnout, recent suicidal ideation, medical error, and intent to leave the current job. Conclusions: Overall, 1,576 of 4,106 (38.4%) NPs and PAs completed the survey. Those NPs and PAs with low mental QOL, extreme fatigue, recent suicidal ideation, or burnout had less favorable WBI scores (all p <.0001). Using a prevalence of low overall QOL among APPs of 14.4% as the pretest probability, the WBI score can reduce the posttest probability of low QOL to 2% or increase it to 64.7%. As the WBI score worsened, the posttest probability of high overall QOL decreased from 73% to 8.2%. Also, WBI score stratified the NPs and PAs likelihood of reporting recent medical errors and intent to leave his or her current job. Implications for practice: The WBI is a useful screening tool to stratify distress and well-being in APPs across a variety of domains and identify those NPs and PAs whose degree of distress may increase the risk of medical error or turnover.
Original language | English (US) |
---|---|
Pages (from-to) | 403-412 |
Number of pages | 10 |
Journal | Journal of the American Association of Nurse Practitioners |
Volume | 31 |
Issue number | 7 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Jul 1 2019 |
Keywords
- Advance practice
- burnout
- fatigue
- job turnover
- medical error
- nurse practitioners
- physician assistants
- quality of life
- self-assessment
- suicidal ideation
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- General Nursing