The influence of physician-nurse collaboration on patient safety culture

Abstract

BackgroundMany factors in health care organizations affect patients' safety, such as; multi-professional teamwork and collaboration. Physician-Nurse collaboration is the most crucial inter-professional collaboration in the health care system. Because these professionals are the closest to the patient and make most decisions related to patients' conditions, Physician-Nurse collaboration affects patients' health condition consequences, length of stay in health care facilities, patients' mortality, and the existence of medical errors. Aim of the studyThis study explores the relationship between physician-nurse collaboration and patient safety culture and compares patient safety culture levels between Jordanian hospitals from different sectors. In addition, examine differences in patient safety culture levels according to the position of health care providers (i.e., nurse managers, RN, and physicians). MethodsA descriptive, cross-sectional design using a self-administered questionnaire was used for the current study. Data were collected between February and May of 2019. Four different hospital settings in Jordan (University, not-for-profit, private and governmental hospitals) were selected. In addition, we recruited a convenience sample representing registered nurses, nurse managers, and physicians at the selected hospitals. MeasurementsThree self-administered questionnaires were used to collect data for the current study: Demographic Data, Collaboration and Satisfaction About Care Decisions (CSACD), and Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture version 1.0 (HSOPS). Data analysisData were screened for errors in data entry, outliers, or missing values. Data were normally distributed without extreme outliers. This study used descriptive statistics, the Pearson product-moment correlation, one-way ANOVA, and the Chi-square tests were used in this study. The level of significance (alpha value) is set at 0.05. Resultsshowed that physician-nurse collaboration had a significant positive relationship with all patient safety culture levels (P < 0.01). In addition, the Pearson's product-moment correlation coefficient results indicated that all patient safety culture scores and subscales were positively and significantly correlated with physician-nurse collaboration (P < 0.01). Furthermore, the results of one-way ANOVA showed a statistically significant difference in the overall perception of patient safety culture according to the position of participants (P < 0.01). Moreover, Participants in Not-for-Profit Hospitals were more likely to report an ‘excellent/very good’ patient safety grade (P < 0.001) than in other hospitals. ConclusionPhysician-nurse collaboration positively impacts overall patient safety culture grades. Health care organization in Jordan has the potential to increase levels of patient safety cultures; however, to achieve this aim, there should be a stronger focus on building effective inter-professional collaboration and building a blame-free culture among healthcare providers, and these organizations should receive the needed support from health care leaders in the country. To help strengthen the health care system, raise patient safety culture levels, and improve quality.