Culture of Safety among Nurses in a Tertiary Teaching Hospital in Saudi Arabia

Hisham Aljadhey,Yusuf Ahmed,Basmah Al-Babtain,Mansour Adam Mahmoud,Sinna Alaqeel

doi:10.4314/tjpr.v15i3.28

Abstract

Purpose: To assess the culture of safety among nurses in a tertiary teaching hospital in Saudi Arabia. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted in King Khaled University Hospital in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. A random sample of 492 nurses was included in the survey using a pre-validated instrument, Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ). Results: Of the questionnaires given to 492 nurses, only 418 complete ones were returned, giving a response rate of 84.9 %. Most of the participants (354, 84.7 %) were staff nurses and the majority, 112 (26.8 %), had working experience of ≥ 20 years. Job satisfaction was perceived as the most common dimension of culture of safety among nurse participants (92.7 ± 14.6) followed by working conditions (82.1 ± 16.6) and safety (75.5 ± 15.5) and teamwork (75.5 ± 16.7). Stress recognition (41.9 ± 25.2) and perception of management (68.1 ± 19.1) ranked as the least common dimensions of safety culture among study subjects. A significant difference in mean score was found between males and females for both working conditions (p = 0.035) and teamwork ( p = 0.045). Significant differences were also observed in terms of job satisfaction dimension scores with regard to years of work experience ( p = 0.045). A significant differences was also observed in terms of stress recognition dimension scores in terms of years of work experience ( p = 0.007). Conclusion: Efforts are needed from healthcare authorities to increase nurses’ perception of management and stress recognition in order to improve safety culture among nurses in Saudi Arabia. Keywords: Nurses, Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ), Safety culture, Working conditions, Teamwork, Job satisfaction

Highlights

Organizational culture is an important determinant of patient safety in healthcare organizations
The questionnaire was distributed to 492 nurses, only 418 were completed and returned, giving a response rate of 84.9 %
Our results revealed a significant difference in teamwork climate mean score between females (76.2 ± 16.1) and males (63.5 ± 21.5)

Summary

Introduction

Organizational culture is an important determinant of patient safety in healthcare organizations. The definition by The Advisory Committee on the Safety of Nuclear Installations (ACSNI) has been widely used in the context of patient safety in health care [1]. The ASCNI defined safety culture of an organization as "the product of individual and group values, attitudes, perceptions, competencies, and patterns of behavior that determine the commitment to, and the style and proficiency of, an organization's health and safety management.". Safety Attitude Questionnaire (SAQ) is one of the most widely used instruments to measure safety culture among different healthcare professionals due to its good psychometric properties [3]. SAQ measures six dimensions of safety culture: teamwork climate, safety climate, job satisfaction, stress recognition, perception of management, and working condition

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Conclusion