Abstract
BackgroundThe threefold aim of this study was to (1) describe attitudes to patient safety among healthcare providers in home health nursing (HHN), (2) investigate differences in attitudes due to age, education level, years of healthcare work experience, and years at current workplace, and (3) compare attitudes of these HHN healthcare providers with available benchmark data from other healthcare settings.MethodsOne hundred sixty HHN healthcare providers in Mid-Norway answered a survey covering the teamwork climate and safety climate in the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ). Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics, t test, and ANOVA.ResultsThe overall mean score was 79.1 for teamwork climate and 72.3 for safety climate. The proportion of positive responses (i.e., scale scores ≥ 75) was 73% on teamwork climate and 53% on safety climate. For teamwork and safety climates, employees with the longest employment at the current workplace had significantly higher mean scores than those with shorter employment. No significant differences were found in mean scores for age, education level, and length of experience in healthcare. Compared to benchmark data from other studies, the mean HHN scores for both safety and teamwork climates were higher than in the vast majority of other healthcare settings and significant differences were found for both dimensions.ConclusionHHN has higher scores for both safety climate and teamwork climate compared to the vast majority of other healthcare settings, but there is room for improvement in the patient safety culture within the Norwegian HHN. Further research on patient safety culture in HHN is needed.
Highlights
The threefold aim of this study was to (1) describe attitudes to patient safety among healthcare providers in home health nursing (HHN), (2) investigate differences in attitudes due to age, education level, years of healthcare work experience, and years at current workplace, and (3) compare attitudes of these HHN healthcare providers with available benchmark data from other healthcare settings
Compared to benchmark data from other studies, the HHN mean scores for both safety climate and teamwork climate were higher than in the vast majority of other healthcare settings and statistically significant differences were found for both dimensions
The HHN had higher scores for both safety climate and teamwork climate compared to the vast majority of other healthcare settings
Summary
The threefold aim of this study was to (1) describe attitudes to patient safety among healthcare providers in home health nursing (HHN), (2) investigate differences in attitudes due to age, education level, years of healthcare work experience, and years at current workplace, and (3) compare attitudes of these HHN healthcare providers with available benchmark data from other healthcare settings. We investigate attitudes towards patient safety in the context of home health nursing (HHN) in Norway. A systematic review of international studies states that adverse events occur in 1–2 per 100 patient consultations in primary care [10]. In Norway, only hospitals are obliged to report adverse event; we have no exact overview of primary care incidents. Olsen and Bjerkan Safety in Health (2017) 3:15 by The Norwegian System of Compensation to Patients [11] and The Health & Social Services ombudsmen [12] indicate that adverse events are present in primary care. Some target areas address/involve primary care, e.g., systematic interdisciplinary drug reviews with reconciliation of drug lists, but most areas have been directed towards hospital care
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