The Influences of the Awareness of Patient Safety Culture on Safety Care Activities among Nurse in small-medium Sized General Hospitals

Abstract

The study was conducted to identify the perception of patient-safety and the level of safety care activity among nurses in small-medium sized general hospitals. Data were collected at three hospitals among 344 nurses on April 2012 and administered questionnaire regarding the perception of patient-safety and safety-care-activity. Data analyzed by using descriptive statistics, inferential statistics was used to determine comparison, correlation and association (Pearson correlation, t-test, ANOVA, Scheffe test, multiple regression). The results revealed that there were significant differences in the level of perception of patient-safety according to the nurses' career, time of work, and work department in their hospitals. And also there were significant differences in the level of safety-care-activity according to the nurses' age, position, marriage, the nurses' career, time of work in their hospitals. Nurses with higher perceived level of patient-safety performed more safety-care-activities. The findings of the study suggests that in order to improve the nurse's perceived level of patient-safety and safety-careactivities, the hospitals need to establish the policies that support patient-safety, improvement the environmental system, proper working atmosphere to ensure appropriate work time, regulation nurse-patient ratio are also required.