Nurses' perceptions of the influence of leadership behaviours and organisational culture on patient safety incident reporting practices.

Abstract

Patient safety is a priority for all healthcare organisations. Enhancing patient safety incident reporting practices requires effective leadership behaviours at all levels in healthcare organisations. To explore nurses' perceptions of the influence of nurse managers' leadership behaviours and organisational culture on patient safety incident reporting practices. A descriptive, cross-sectional, correlational design was adopted with a convenience sample of 325 nurses from 15 Jordanian hospitals. Respondents had positive perceptions of their nurse managers' leadership behaviours and organisational culture. There was a significant positive relationship between leadership behaviours and organisational culture (r=0.423, P<0.001) and between leadership behaviours and actual incident-reporting practices (r=0.131, P<0.001). Additionally, there was a significant positive relationship between organisational culture and incident-reporting practices (r=0.250, P<0.001). Healthcare organisations must develop leaders who will foster a supportive and just culture that will enhance nurses' practice with regards to reporting patient safety incidents.