Patient Safety Culture: Perception of State Hospital Nurses

Abstract

The purpose of this descriptive study was to explore patient safety culture as perceived by nurses in state hospitals and compare perception of patient safety culture among nurses in different level of hospitals. Five hundred registered nurses were recruited by stratify random sampling of 10 % of the number of the regional hospital and general hospital.Data were collected using a 5-point Likert scale of the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety developed by AHRQ with Chronbach alpha coefficient of .79. Data were analyzed using frequency, percentage, mean, standard deviation, and independent T test.

Results showed that the average perception scores of patient safety culture regarding management of safety, working safety, communication within units were at a high level and working of the supervisor/head of unit was at a moderate level. Supporting for safety culture regarding team work was not statistically significantly different (p = .11) between nurses of regional hospital and general hospital. Ninety four percent of nurses reported experience of reporting adverse event and the majority of them reported ≥21 times. The report of near miss incidence in general hospital was statistically significantly higher than that of regional hospital (p = .02). Nursing administrators should raise awareness on patient safety among nurses in regional and general hospitals and set policy on patient safety culture in their organizations.