Null and alternative hypotheses in leadership theory research

Nurses' Practice Environments, Error Interception Practices and Inpatient Medication Errors (2012)

Null hypothesis: There is no significant relationship between nurses' error interception practices and their practice environment.

Alternative hypothesis: There is a significant relationship between nurses' error interception practices and their practice environment.

Two frameworks were used in developing the theoretical foundation of the study: Error Theory and Nursing Organization and Outcomes Model.

Error Theory is a framework developed to explain errors that occur in different organizational settings. In the hospital/medical setting, errors are identified as medical errors, defined as "any preventable event that may lead to inappropriate medication use or patient harm" (Flynn et al., 2012, p. 181). In essence, error theory posits that in preventing errors from occurring within an organization, there must be a system established and implemented that could detect, determine, and deter any preventable errors/events. Further, the theory's proponent, J. Reason, posited that within the system, there must be "layers of defenses" developed to curb the effect of errors at every layer or step of the way that could hamper an organization's activities (and, as in the case of hospitals, those errors that could cost people's lives).

The Nursing Organization and Outcomes Model explains how a supportive nursing practice environment could actually lead to "positive patient outcomes" (p. 181). A supportive nursing practice environment is described as follows: (1) opportunities for nurses to participate in organizational decisions; (2) competent and supportive frontline nurse managers; (3) collaborative nurse-physician relationships; (4) strong foundation for quality care; and (5) adequate resources. These characteristics were considered as parameters from which hospital environments were evaluated and related and tested against nurses' performance in terms of frequency of medication error occurrence in a span 8-months and based on every 1,000 patient days (p. 183).

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