Assessing Patient Safety Culture: Application of the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire in a Kenyan Setting

Nickcy Mbuthia,Mary Moleki

doi:10.2174/1874434602014010203

Abstract

Background: Patient safety has recently been declared a global health priority. Achievement and sustenance of a culture of patient safety require a regular and timely assessment of the organization. The Safety Attitudes Questionnaire is a patient safety culture assessment tool whose usefulness has been established in countries, but a few studies have been published from Africa, more so, in Kenyan settings. Objective: To evaluate the reliability of the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire in assessing the patient safety culture in a Kenyan setting and to assess healthcare workers' perceptions of patient safety culture. Methods: A descriptive quantitative approach was utilized whereby the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire was administered to 241 healthcare workers in two public hospitals. The Cronbach’s α was calculated to determine the internal consistency of the SAQ. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze and describe the data on patient safety culture. Results: The total scale Cronbach’s alpha of the SAQ was 0.86, while that of the six dimensions was 0.65 to 0.90. The overall mean score of the total SAQ was 65.8 (9.9). Participants had the highest positive perception for Job Satisfaction with a mean score of 78.3 (16.1) while the lowest was evaluated for Stress Recognition with a mean score of 53.8 (28.6). Conclusion: The SAQ demonstrated satisfactory internal consistency and is suitable for use in the Kenyan context. The perception of patient safety culture in the Kenyan hospital is below international recommendations. There is a need for implementation of strategies for the improvement of the organization culture in Kenyan hospitals.

Highlights

Patient safety has recently been recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a global health priority and its role in strengthening health care systems in order to achieve universal health coverage cannot be overlooked [1]
The majority of the healthcare workers who participated in the survey were staff nurses (n = 122, 52.1%) while the majority had clinical experience of between one to five years (n = 93, 39.7%)
The satisfactory results of the reliability testing indicated that the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ) was capable of assessing the health workers’ perception of patient safety culture in a Kenyan context and can be used to benchmark with international standards

Summary

Introduction

Patient safety has recently been recognized by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a global health priority and its role in strengthening health care systems in order to achieve universal health coverage cannot be overlooked [1]. Patient safety culture is a complex framework relating to shared social aspects of an organization with various dimensions that guide the patient safety behaviors [8]. These dimensions include the visible manifestations of the healthcare organization, the values, beliefs, and norms about what is important in an organization, and the deeper shared assumptions that are pervasive among the health care workers as well as the patients [9]. A reporting culture provides opportunities for healthcare workers and patients to identify report errors and safety issues while learning from them and preventing the occurrence of harm [12]. The Safety Attitudes Questionnaire is a patient safety culture assessment tool whose usefulness has been established in countries, but a few studies have been published from Africa, more so, in Kenyan settings

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion