Assessment of Patient Safety Culture Among Nurses Working at Tertiary Care Hospitals in Aljouf Region, Saudi Arabia.

Abstract

Patient safety is a fundamental element in healthcare quality and a major challenge in achieving universal health coverage, especially in low- and middle-income countries. The first step to improve patient safety is to evaluate the safety culture in hospitals. This study aimed to investigate the patient safety culture among nurses and determine the factors affecting it. This cross-sectional study was conducted among 423 nurses working at tertiary care hospitals in the Al-Jouf region in Saudi Arabia. The highest score for patient safety among nurses was for teamwork within units (16.41 ± 2.44). The lowest score was for nonpunitive response to errors (5.87 ± 1.92). In addition, 83% of the participants did not report any events in the past 12 months. More perception of patient safety was significantly higher among females than males in dimensions of teamwork within units, frequency of events reported, and staffing. Furthermore, teamwork within units, management support for patient safety, staffing, non-punitive response to errors, and handoffs and transitions were significantly higher among participants in direct contact with patients. The Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSOPSC) scale is significantly higher among non-Saudi nurses, nurses with bachelor's education, nurses with less working hours per week, and those who had training on patient safety. The current study showed that the majority of the participants did not report any events in the past 12 months. The highest score for patient safety culture dimensions among nurses was for teamwork within units while the lowest score was for nonpunitive response to errors.