Association between prospective, retrospective memories and job performance of nurses in the city of Ahvaz, Iran, in 2016

Nurses continuously carry out several activities and need to develop certain cognitive mechanisms to be able to concentrate on their tasks. These activities and tasks affect and deal with the health and safety of people and their job performance. This study aims to investigate the association between prospective and retrospective memories and job performance of nurses in Imam Hospital, Ahvaz, Iran, in 2016.

 This descriptive study was conducted on 150 nurses (67 males and 83 female) of Imam Hospital in Ahvaz based on an available sampling method. The Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire (PRMQ) determined the amount of prospective and retrospective memories, and job performance was evaluated using Steinmetz questionnaire. The collected data was analyzed using descriptive tests, analysis of variance, and Pearson correlation.

The mean score of prospective memory, retrospective memory and job performance were 20.89 (±5.87), 19.43 (±5.12) and 52.46 (±8.14), respectively. Regression model showed that 22% of the variance in job performance is explained by prospective memory and retrospective memory.   

We concluded prospective and retrospective memories were associated with the job performance of nurses working in Imam Hospital, Ahvaz, Iran. It is very important for the safety of the patients to improve the ability of the nurses who perform different tasks. In PM's tasks, they implemented strategies.