Papers by Simone Akerboom
Journal of nursing management, 2006
This study examines the influence of changes in work conditions on stress outcomes as well as inf... more This study examines the influence of changes in work conditions on stress outcomes as well as influence of changes in stress outcomes on work conditions. As such, it answers questions still open in the literature regarding causality of work environmental characteristics and the health of nurses. A complete, two wave panel design was used with a time interval of 3 years. The sample consisted of 381 hospital nurses in different functions, working in different wards. Changes in work conditions are predictive of the outcomes, especially of job satisfaction and emotional exhaustion. The strongest predictors of job satisfaction were social support from supervisor, reward and control over work. The strongest predictors of emotional exhaustion were work and time pressure and physical demands. Reversed relationships were also found for these outcomes. The results of this study are consistent with transactional models of stress that indicate that stressors and stress outcomes mutually influen...
This review discusses the determinants of job stress in the nursing profession. It summarizes the... more This review discusses the determinants of job stress in the nursing profession. It summarizes the results of 51 studies published between 1990 and 2005. The present review includes psychological, attitudinal and behavioral stress indica- tors, and in this way focuses on a variety of outcomes: job satisfaction, health complaints, burnout, absenteeism and turnover. The dimensions of the Job Demands, Control, Support (JDCS) model were found to be important deter- minants, as well as other job characteristics such as communication, home-work conflict and task- and role clarity. Challenging work, supervisor support, control and coping have the potential to buffer the detrimental effects of a stressful work environment. Challenging or meaningful work however can work out in opposite ways. The commitment,to take care of others can be an important buffer in the stressor-strain relationship, but also can lead to burnout, when going on too long. Providing a comprehensive review of the existin...
Attention Perception & Psychophysics, 1983
Several studies reported that subjects have difficulty in processing a sequence of auditory signa... more Several studies reported that subjects have difficulty in processing a sequence of auditory signals if the sequence alternates between ears: Alternating speech and melodies are recognized poorly. If, however, the ears not receiving this information are "filled" with noise or with a lower constant-frequency tone (drone), recognition improves again. This improvement is due to the fact that the signal is
Quality and Safety in Health Care, 2007
Background: The current awareness of the potential safety risks in healthcare environments has le... more Background: The current awareness of the potential safety risks in healthcare environments has led to the development of largely reactive methods of systems analysis. Proactive methods are able to objectively detect structural shortcomings before mishaps and have been widely used in other high-risk industries. Methods: The Leiden Operating Theatre and Intensive Care Safety (LOTICS) scale was developed and evaluated with respect to factor structure and reliability of the scales. The survey was administered to the staff of operating rooms at two university hospitals, and intensive care units (ICUs) of one university hospital and one teaching hospital. The response rate varied between 40-47%. Data of 330 questionnaires were analysed. Safety aspects between the different groups were compared. Results: Factor analyses and tests for reliability resulted in nine subscales. To these scales another two were added making a total of 11. The reliability of the scales varied from 0.75 to 0.88. The results clearly showed differences between units (OR1, OR2, ICU1, ICU2) and staff.
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 1983
duration is the perceptual-onset asynchrony (POA) between the clicks. This is the criterion time ... more duration is the perceptual-onset asynchrony (POA) between the clicks. This is the criterion time that the subjects set for themselves after each click, and, ifno further click arrives during that time, they initiate their response, a process taking an additional amount of timethe second duration. If it is assumed that response initiation time is invariant with the presentation mode (interaural vs. monaural), then one can interpret differences between stop RIs as differences between POAs.
International Journal of Stress Management, 2005
The aim of the present study was to examine the influence of organizational and environmental wor... more The aim of the present study was to examine the influence of organizational and environmental work conditions on the job characteristics of nurses and on their health and well-being. The sample consisted of 807 registered nurses working in an academic hospital. The direct influence of work conditions on outcomes was examined. Mediation of job characteristics in the relationships between work conditions and outcomes was tested by means of regression analyses. The results indicated that job characteristics, such as demands and control, mediated the relationship between work conditions, such as work agreements and rewards, and outcomes. By managing organizational and environmental conditions of work, job characteristics can be altered, and these in their turn influence nurses' job satisfaction and distress.
European Journal of Anaesthesiology, 2013
Current thinking about patient safety emphasises the causal relationship between working conditio... more Current thinking about patient safety emphasises the causal relationship between working conditions, referred to as latent risk factors (LRFs), and the quality of clinical care. To investigate the extent to which LRFs are related to job satisfaction, job stress and intention to leave for specialist anaesthetists, trainee anaesthetists and nurse anaesthetists. We expected the different members of the anaesthesia team to show differing perceptions of LRFs, and differences in predictive LRFs for well-being. Cross-sectional survey. Three university hospitals in the Netherlands. One hundred and nine specialist anaesthetists, 46 trainee anaesthetists and 115 nurse anaesthetists. LRFs were measured as independent variables. Job satisfaction, job stress and intention to leave were measured as dependent variables. The differences between groups on LRFs, job satisfaction, job stress and intention to leave were analysed using one-way analysis of variance. The contribution of outcomes and LRFs were tested by regression analyses. The overall response rate was 62%. More than 60% of the professionals reported unfavourably on access to information and quality of procedures. Nurse anaesthetists reported more problems for every LRF than specialist anaesthetists and trainee anaesthetists. LRFs accounted for a significant proportion of variance in job satisfaction: 63% in specialist anaesthetists, 55% in trainee anaesthetists and 42% in nurse anaesthetists. LRFs also explained important parts of the variance in intention to leave in specialist anaesthetists (41%) and nurse anaesthetists (21%). LRFs accounted for a significant proportion of variance in stress: 25% in specialist anaesthetists and 22% in nurse anaesthetists. Only working hours was a predictor of stress in trainee anaesthetists (22%). LRFs are important correlates of the well-being of anaesthesia staff. Important differences between the different members of the anaesthesia team emerged in the set of LRFs that affect their well-being. These differences should be taken into account both in research and intervention projects.
British Journal of Anaesthesia, 2010
The person-centred analysis and prevention approach has long dominated proposals to improve patie... more The person-centred analysis and prevention approach has long dominated proposals to improve patient safety in healthcare. In this approach, the focus is on the individual responsible for making an error. An alternative is the systems-centred approach, in which attention is paid to the organizational factors that create precursors for individual errors. This approach assumes that since humans are fallible, systems must be designed to prevent humans from making errors or to be tolerant to those errors. The questions raised by this approach might, for example, include asking why an individual had specific gaps in their knowledge, experience, or ability. The systems approach focuses on working conditions rather than on errors of individuals, as the likelihood of specific errors increases with unfavourable conditions. Since the factors that promote errors are not directly visible in the working environment, they are described as latent risk factors (LRFs). Safety failures in anaesthesia, in particular, and medicine, in general, result from multiple unfavourable LRFs, so we propose that effective interventions require that attention is paid to interactions between multiple factors and actors. Understanding how LRFs affect safety can enable us to design more effective control measures that will impact significantly on both individual performance and patient outcomes.
Perception & Psychophysics, 1994
and showed that the threshold for discriminating an an isochronous duple rhythm (a series of clic... more and showed that the threshold for discriminating an an isochronous duple rhythm (a series of clicks with a temporal offset on every other one) from an isochronous rhythm (no offset) is poorer when the clicks are presented alternately to the two ears than when they are presented to the same ears. Van Noorden reported that the difference between the thresholds in the alternating and nonalternating conditions varied with the tempo of the sequence. Nakao and Axelrod found invariance of this threshold difference with sequence speed. According to our quantification of temporal processing of interaural sequences, the latter result should be expected. We carried out five psychophysical experiments to establish interaural and monaural discrimination between isochronous and anisochronous rhythms. Across experiments, base time intervals of 60-720 msec were spanned. The main result was that we replicated the poorer discrimination for interaural sequences. This deterioration in discrimination was the same for all sequence speeds. It was also the case that the thresholds were almost constant up to a sound repetition rate of about 3 per second, but increased linearly with slower rates. This result supports evidence in the literature that temporal processing of sequences faster than about 3-4 sounds per second differs from temporal processing of slower sequences.
Perception & Psychophysics, 1985
Perception & Psychophysics, 1983
Previous research has demonstrated that the subjective tempo of sequences of clicks that alternat... more Previous research has demonstrated that the subjective tempo of sequences of clicks that alternate between ears is slower than that of nonalternating sequences. Although the stimulus onset asynchronies (SOAs) between the clicks are the same in both conditions, their perceptual onset asynchronies (POAs) differ by 25 msec at all SOA values between 40 and 2,130 msec. It has been suggested that this subjective tempo difference originates only after a few clicks have been processed. The present study shows this not to be the case: The POA difference between interaural and monaural click sequences could also be established with sequences comprising only a few clicks.
Perception & Psychophysics, 1982
Previous research demonstrated, by means of a reaction time technique, that there is no differenc... more Previous research demonstrated, by means of a reaction time technique, that there is no difference between the perceptual onset asynchronies (POAs) of nonalternating tone sequences and of frequency-alternating tone sequences, even if the latter are streaming. This finding implies that listeners are capable of extracting the tempo of the total alternating sequence,even though successive tones belong to different streams. The present study investigated whether subjects are also capable of establishing the tempo of one stream. To this end, listeners were required to match the rate of one stream by adjusting the rate of a nonalternating comparison stream (a pulse sequence). In addition, they were required to match the total rate of the streaming sequence. It turned out that the total tempo could be matched precisely and that the tempo of one stream could be approximated very closely.
BMC Surgery, 2012
Background: Patient safety is one of the greatest challenges in healthcare. In the operating room... more Background: Patient safety is one of the greatest challenges in healthcare. In the operating room errors are frequent and often consequential. This article describes an approach to a successful implementation of a patient safety program in the operating room, focussing on latent risk factors that influence patient safety. We performed an intervention to improve these latent risk factors (LRFs) and increase awareness of patient safety issues amongst OR staff.
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Papers by Simone Akerboom