A Survey on Junior Nurses’ Risk Perception Level and Its Influencing Factors

[Objective] Junior nurses’ perceived risk level may affect their career satisfaction and performances. This study sought to investigate the current situation of risk perception level of junior nurses with undergraduate degrees and to determine its influencing factors, with the aim to provide a reference for nursing managers to carry out targeted training and education for junior nurses. [Methods] A total of 484 junior nurses with undergraduate degrees from five tertiary hospitals in Guangdong Province were selected by the convenience sampling method as the research participants. The general information questionnaire, risk perception questionnaire and the Chinese version of the Positive and Negative Affect Schedule (PANAS) scale were used for the survey. [Results] The enrolled junior nurses scored 85.84±13.56 (Full score was 100) on the risk perception survey. Working years, positive and negative affect, gender, and personality characteristics were the main influencing factors for junior nurses’ risk perception levels (P<0.05). [Conclusions] Junior nurses' risk perception was at a moderate and acceptable level. However, their risk perception was higher in dimensions such as physical function, occupational exposure, and time. Therefore, nursing managers should pay attention to high-risk perception items, and targeted measures should be taken according to different characteristics of nurses to improve their ability to correctly recognize risks and eliminate negative emotions in order to improve the quality of nursing services.