Assessing the prevalence of organizational procrastination and the associated factors among nursing and midwifery staff

Procrastination as one of the biggest obstacles to human resource efficiency has an important role in reducing performance, productivity and health of employees and organizations. Any kind of procrastination can cause irreversible complications for patients in hospitals.
Ami: This study aimed to determine the prevalence of procrastination and relationship between demographic and job characteristics in Nursing and Midwifery staff.
This Cross-sectional study was conducted in 2013 in Isfahan social security hospitals. The study sample included nursing and midwifery staff (n=290) were selected through stratified randomized sampling. Data were collected by demographic questionnaire and organizational procrastination scale. Procrastination scale is a self report questionnaire includes 25 items and three subscales of inefficiency, mental anxiety and aversion of duty. The reliability (α=0.892) approved in past studies. Data was analyzed with correlation coefficient, ANOVA and independent T test in 0.05 significant levels with using spss21 software.
The mean score of procrastination was 52/46 ± 12/99. More 70 percent of the staff had low procrastination, and 1.5 percent had a high procrastination. Mean score of procrastination scale had significant relationship with hospital service (P=0.039). Subscale scores of inefficiency were significantly higher in males nursing staff. Procrastination in emergency and surgical wards staff, midwives, official employees and married employees was higher but the occupational and personal factors didn’t associated with the procrastination significantly (P>0.05).
Due to the sensitivity of the nursing and midwifery staff tasks, identifying, training and managing the staff with medium and high procrastination is recommended.