Background One of the reasons why patient safety may be put at risk during healthcare interventions is a lack of staff adherence to patient safety guidelines. There could be a relationship between staff’s adherence to patient safety guidelines and their perceived level of reward for their work and/or motivation.

Aim To examine the relationship between reward and adherence to patient safety guidelines, and between motivation and adherence to patient safety guidelines, among nurses working in emergency departments (EDs) in Indonesia.

Method This was a cross-sectional study of 101 nurses working in the EDs of four hospitals in Indonesia. Self-reported questionnaires were used to collect data on the level of reward participants felt they received for their work, the level of participants’ motivation for their work, and participants’ adherence to patient safety guidelines. Spearman’s rank correlation testing was used to determine the relationships between variables.

Results There was a statistically significant negative relationship between reward and adherence (P=0.019, r=-0.233), which meant that those who perceived their reward as low were more likely to adhere to patient safety guidelines than those who felt they were highly rewarded. There was a statistically significant positive relationship between motivation and adherence to patient safety guidelines (P=0.017, r=0.236), which meant that the higher the motivation, the higher participants’ level of adherence to patient safety guidelines.

Conclusion Ensuring ED nurses are motivated for their work by offering rewards – such as a decent salary, a supportive workplace environment and career progression opportunities – is important to enhance their adherence to patient safety guidelines.