Chih-Hsuan Huang, Chun-Ting Lai, Cheng-Feng Wu, Yii-Ching Lee, Chia-Hui Yu, Hsiu-Wen Hsueh, Hsin-Hung Wu
Purpose: Gender difference exists in the perception of the patient safety culture in healthcare organizations. A case from a medical center in Taiwan is presented to examine how different genders perceive the patient safety culture in practice from 2014 to 2017. Design/methodology/approach: A longitudinal study using the data from 2014 to 2017 is conducted quantitatively. Mann–Whitney U test and one-way analysis of variance are employed for analyses. Findings: The results showed that female nurses had significantly higher emotional exhaustion than male nurses in 2015 and 2016 indicating male nurses had better fatigue recovery than their female counterparts. In addition, male nurses felt a higher degree of fatigue in 2016 and 2017 than those in 2015 statistically. In contrast, female nurses felt more stressful in 2016 and 2017 than those in 2014 statistically. Female nurses had higher emotional exhaustion in 2016 and 2017 than those in 2014 and 2015 statistically. Practical implications: To sum up, female nurses were more stressful than before, and their recovery was also relatively poor particularly in 2016 and 2017. There is a need to reduce the degree of fatigue for female nurses in this medical center through employee assistance programs, mindfulness-based stress reduction programs, building up female nurses' positive currency and setting up their appreciative inquiry. In contrast to female nurses, male nurses recovered better from fatigue. This might encourage hospital management to deploy male nurses more effectively in this medical center. Originality/value: The results enable the hospital management to know there is a gender difference in this case hospital. More attention on female nurses is required. © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited.
School of Business Administration, Hubei University of Economics, Wuhan City, China; Institute of Wuhan Studies, Jianghan University, Wuhan City, China; Department of Business Administration, National Changhua University of Education, Changhua, Taiwan; Research Center of Hubei Logistics Development, Hubei University of Economics, Wuhan City, China; Department of Health Business Administration, Hung Kuang University, Taichung City, Taiwan; Superintendent Office, Ben Tang Cheng Ching Hospital, Taichung City, Taiwan; Mass Communication Center, Chung Shan Medical University Hospital, Taichung City, Taiwan; School of Nursing, Chung Shan Medical University, Taichung City, Taiwan; Department of Industrial Education and Technology, National Changhua University of Education, Changhua, Taiwan; Department of M-Commerce and Multimedia Applications, Asia University, Taichung City, Taiwan; Faculty of Education, State University of Malang, Malang, Indonesia