Abstract
BackgroundTens of millions of patients worldwide suffer from avoidable disabling injuries and death every year. Measuring the safety climate in health care is an important step in improving patient safety. The most commonly used instrument to measure safety climate is the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ). The aim of the present study was to establish the validity and reliability of the translated version of the SAQ.MethodsThe SAQ was translated and adapted to the Swedish context. The survey was then carried out with 374 respondents in the operating room (OR) setting. Data was received from three hospitals, a total of 237 responses. Cronbach’s alpha and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to evaluate the reliability and validity of the instrument.ResultsThe Cronbach’s alpha values for each of the factors of the SAQ ranged between 0.59 and 0.83. The CFA and its goodness-of-fit indices (SRMR 0.055, RMSEA 0.043, CFI 0.98) showed good model fit. Intercorrelations between the factors safety climate, teamwork climate, job satisfaction, perceptions of management, and working conditions showed moderate to high correlation with each other. The factor stress recognition had no significant correlation with teamwork climate, perception of management, or job satisfaction.ConclusionsTherefore, the Swedish translation and psychometric testing of the SAQ (OR version) has good construct validity. However, the reliability analysis suggested that some of the items need further refinement to establish sound internal consistency. As suggested by previous research, the SAQ is potentially a useful tool for evaluating safety climate. However, further psychometric testing is required with larger samples to establish the psychometric properties of the instrument for use in Sweden.
Highlights
Tens of millions of patients worldwide suffer from avoidable disabling injuries and death every year
The Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ) is a refinement of the Intensive Care Unit Management Attitudes Questionnaire (ICUMAQ) [26], which was derived from the Flight Management Attitudes Questionnaire (FMAQ) [27]
The correlation between all factors showed moderate to high correlation except for stress recognition, which had no significant correlation with teamwork climate, perceptions of management, or job satisfaction
Summary
Tens of millions of patients worldwide suffer from avoidable disabling injuries and death every year. Measuring the safety climate in health care is an important step in improving patient safety. Tens of millions of patients suffer disabling injuries or death every year due to unsafe medical care [1]. The Swedish Ministry of Health and Social Affairs estimates that almost 100 000 patients are affected every year by preventable injuries. Some errors do not result in adverse events, and these are often characterized as “near misses”. A health care injury is often a consequence of an adverse event, which is preventable in most cases [5]. An adverse event is defined as an injury resulting from a medical intervention (i.e., not due to the underlying medical condition) [2]. Patient safety is characterized as a nationwide problem and, to improve patient safety, the focus should be on the processes of care instead of blaming individuals [2,6]
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