Job performance, defined as the effectiveness of the person in carrying out his or her roles and responsibilities related to direct patient care [1]. A healthy work environment is one in which staff have made health and health promotion a priority and part of their working lives [2]. Performance refers to voluntary behaviors that can harm the well-being of the organization and Core task performance refers to the basic requiredduties of a particular job. Education and work experience are the two forms of human capital individuals are most likely to acquire during their careers (Thomas & FeldmanEL,2009) Work and care environments must be safe, healing and humane, respectful of the rights, responsibilities, needs and contributions of patients, their families, nurses and all health professionals. Nursing performance measures are an integral part of quality initiatives in acute care; hospital needs to support quality improvement processes and outcomes [3].

Thus a healthy working environment is one in which there is not only an absence of harmful conditions but an abundance of health-promoting ones. These may include continuous assessment of risks to health, the provision of appropriate information and training on health issues and the availability of health promoting organizational support practices and structures. A healthy work environment is one in which staff have made health and health promotion a priority and part of their working lives [2].

To assess the performance of nurses working in pediatric department in Khartoum state hospitals [4].

1. To determine nurse's performance in the pediatric department in Khartoum state.

2. To assess nurse's performance neonatal intensive care units in Khartoum state.

3. To determine the relation between nurses performance and their age, their experiences and their level education

In order to fulfill the aims of the current study, a crosssectional descriptive hospital-based study was conducted in Khartoum State, the national capital of Sudan.

The three states of Khartoum are Khartoum, Khartoum North and Omdurman. The main hospitals specialized in children were chosen from the three states. The selection of the hospitals was based on the fact that they have large numbers of children and large number of nurses in the Pediatric department. At the time of study, and large numbers of Pediatric department.

Random sampling method was selected in recruiting nurses from the hospitals so as to give equal chance to participants and avoid any selection bias. The list of the nurses was obtained from the human resource officers and the names were entered in a ballot in order to select participants randomly and give all the nurses equal chances for inclusion in the current study, thus avoiding selection bias.

All female and male nurses with different educational background (i.e. those with diplomas, undergraduate and postgraduate certificates university level were included were eligible for entry in the study. Auxiliary nurses were excluded.

In the current study, a total of 137 nurses working in the Pediatric department were selected after agreement [5].

Data was collected by a questionnaire the variable the questionnaire included two parts; the first was the background information of nurses such as age, gender, education level and hospital type (public or private) and the second focused on nurses’ performance. Questionnaire targeted nurses to assess their performance i.e. the service provided by them. It included six subtitles and a modified version of the Patria scale was used. The statements were namely: Leadership, Planning/Evaluation, Communications, perform the procedure and Critical Care, Teaching Collaboration and satisfaction for the family and finally the Professional Development (for nurses performance the nurses supervised if they performing the procedure or not, ,then if the procedure performed how it was performed (the questionnaire attached)). The data was collated and analyzed. Data collection on 2014-2015.

Data entry and processing were performed by using the Statistical Package of the Social Science (SPSS) Software, version 16.0. Various descriptive and inferential statistical methods were used including mean, SD, Student t-test and correlation coefficients logistic regression P value was set at < 0.05 for statistically different variables. Pearson's correlation to examine the relationship, between the variable was conducted.

The approval to conduct the current study was sought from the scientific committee at the College of Nursing Sciences at the University of Khartoum. The three selected hospitals were approached and ethical permission was obtained from the General Directors. All nurses participated in the study were those who actually agreed to complete the study. Nurses were approached with a full description of the study and its aims and were assured that all the information obtained would be treated with high privacy and confidentiality. Any information revealing the identity of any individual was not included in the final report or in other communication prepared throughout the study.

Job performance scale: In order to check the validity of the job performance scale items in the current research population, the data collection tool was applied on a pilot sample consisting of 40 subjects (10 males & 30 females). The sample was selected randomly from the research population. After scoring the responses, Pearson correlation was conducted to get correlation coefficients between scores of each item and the total score of the subscale in which the item belonging to. This helped in determining the internal consistency of the scale. The results of these computations were shown on the (Table 1).

The researcher computed both Cronbach's Alpha and Spearman-Brown reliability coefficients for each subscale and for total job Performance Scale. (Table 2) shows the results of these computations.

(Table 3) shows study sample descriptions according to Place of Working and Socio - Demographic variables

To test hypothesis no (1) which wording: “Job performance of nurses working in pediatric department in Khartoum state hospitals was below average”, the researchers applied one sample (t) test. The flowing (Table 4) shows the results of this procedure:

To test hypothesis no (2) which wording: “Job performance of nurses working in neonatal intensive care units in Khartoum state hospitals is above average”, the researchers applied one sample (t) test. The flowing (Table 5) shows the results of this procedure:

To test hypothesis no (3 - a) which wording: “There was a positive significant relationship between Job performance of nurses working in pediatric units in Khartoum state hospitals, with their Ages Levels variable“, the researchers applied Spearman rank correlation equation. The flowing (Table 6) shows the results of this procedure:

To test hypothesis no (3 - b) which wording: “There is a positive significant relationship between Job performance of nurses working in neonatal intensive care units in Khartoum state hospitals, with their Ages Levels variable“, the researchers applied spearman rank correlation equation. The flowing (Table 7) shows the results of this procedure:

To test hypothesis no (3 - c) which wording: “There is a positive significant relationship between Job performance of nurses working in pediatric units in Khartoum state hospitals, with their Experience Levels variable“, the researchers applied Spearman rank correlation equation. The flowing (Table 8) shows the results of this procedure:

To test hypothesis no (3 - d) which wording: “There is a positive significant relationship between Job performance of nurses working in neonatal intensive care units in Khartoum state hospitals, with their Experience Levels variable“, the researchers applied Spearman rank correlation equation. The flowing (Table 9) shows the results of this procedure:

To test hypothesis no (3 - E) which wording: “There is a positive significant relationship between Job performance of nurses working in pediatric units in Khartoum state hospitals, with their Educational Levels variable“, the researchers applied Spearman rank correlation equation. The flowing (Table 10) shows the results of this procedure:

To test hypothesis no (3 - F) which wording: “There is a positive significant relationship between Job performance of nurses working in neonatal intensive care units in Khartoum state hospitals, with their Educational Levels variable“, the researchers applied Spearman rank correlation equation. The flowing (Table 11) shows the results of this procedure:

In the current study, most of nurse were female (70.8) (Table 3) and nurses had post graduate studies (1.5%) most of the nurses had work experience from one to five years. The findings of this study indicated that the job performance provided by the nurses in pediatric units was above average and below average in other department (Table 4). This finding may be due to large number of cases and few numbers of nurses per shift also, the qualified nurses are working in units. And this consists with the study prepared by Healthcare Research and Quality U.S. Department of Health and Human Services found that. A shortage of staff and increased workload, has the potential to threaten quality of care and hospitals with inadequate nurse staffing have higher rates of adverse events. Such as hospital acquired infection, shock, and failure to rescue.

On other hand this result when compared with the results of previous study, done by Yuxiu P, et al. (2011) [6] also, (Yang et al., 2006). They Found that the level of job performance with critical care at a moderate at moderate level. New nurses had lack of the experience to provide effective nursing care for patients, since their job performance was based on work experience and qualification, qualified nurses' and whom they work in neonatal units their performance above average ,this finding consist to some extend with study done by Hanan. AlAhmadi (2009) she found that, Job performance is positively related to some personal factors, including years of experience, nationality, gender, and marital status. Level of education is negatively related to performance but in current study the level of education positively related to performance. (Table 10) also this consist with study done by Tzeng, 2004 [7] also Thomas&Feldmanl.2009), they found that the relationships between educational level and job, performance stronger and positively related to job performance. Regarding age and nurses performance current study found that the correlation was positive in pediatric department (Table 7) except neonatal intensive care units the relation not significant (Table 6), Reid and Dawson, 2001 fond that Nurses’ job performance has been found to be negatively influenced by old age, in the intensive care unit the performance mostly depend on experience and specific related courses.

A shortage of staff and increased workload has the potential to threaten quality of care. (Halmetal.2005) hospitals with inadequate nurse staffing have higher rates of adverse events. Such as hospital acquired infection, shock, and failure to rescue [8].

Table 1: Person coefficients of item-total correlation (r) by subscales of the job performance scale.

Table 2: Alpha and Spearman-brown reliability coefficients for each subscale of the job performance scale.

Table 3: Shows study sample descriptions according to place of working and socio - Demographic variables.

Table 4: Shows the results of one sample (t) test to determine the levels of job performance of nurses working in pediatric units in khartoum state hospitals (n=84).

Table 5: Shows the results of one sample (t) test to determine the levels of job performance of nurses working in neonatal intensive care units in khartoum state hospitals (n=53).

Table 6: Shows results of spearman rank correlation coefficients to explain the significance of relationship between job performance of nurses working in pediatric units in khartoum state hospitals, with their ages levels variable (n=84).

Table 7: Shows results of spearman rank correlation coefficients to explain the significance of relationship between job performance of nurses working in neonatal intensive care units in khartoum state hospitals, with their ages levels variable (n=53).

Table 8: Shows results of spearman rank correlation coefficients to explain the significance of relationship between job performance of nurses working in pediatric units in khartoum state hospitals, with their experience levels variable (n=84).

Table 9: Shows results of Spearman rank correlation coefficients to explain the significance of relationship between Job performance of nurses working in neonatal intensive care units in Khartoum state hospitals, with their Experience Levels variable (n=53).

Table 10: Shows results of Spearman rank correlation coefficients to explain the significance of relationship between Job performance of nurses working in pediatric units in Khartoum state hospitals, with their Educational Levels variable (n=84).

Table 11: Shows results of Spearman rank correlation coefficients to explain the significance of relationship between Job performance of nurses working in neonatal intensive care units in Khartoum state hospitals, with their Educational Levels variable (n=53).