The influential factors on nurses’ situation awareness in inpatient settings: A literature review

Situation Awareness (SA) is an essential skill in the medical care that contributes to excellent patient care and patient safety. In the inpatient settings such as Intensive Care Units, nurses are responsible for monitoring and detecting changes in a patient's overall health, assessing the direction in which the patient's health is headed, and taking the necessary steps toward continuous improvement of the patient's health. Recent studies have indicated that SA in nursing practice plays a key role in detecting threats to patient safety, preventing medical errors, and ensuring overall patient wellbeing. In this study, we conducted a literature review to identify influential factors that affect nurses’ SA in the inpatient settings and evaluate existing methods to measure the nurses' SA. From the 16 empirical studies that were reviewed, the results showed five main categories of influential factors of nurses’ SA, including data visualization, nurse experience, fatigue, team communication, and other factors (i.e., alignment of nurses, care situations, and shifts). Additionally, five methods that are used to measure nurses' SA were evaluated, including interviews, observation, Situation Awareness Global Assessment Technique, surveys, and video study. A recommendation for future research directions on nurses' SA was discussed.