Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the moderating effect of empowerment of perioperative nurses in the relationship between their patient safety culture awareness and safety management activities of surgery nurses. Methods: The participants were 262 perioperative nurses in JeollaNam-do, JeollaBuk-do, and GyungsangNam-do. Patient safety culture awareness, safety management activities, and empowerment were measured using self-report questionnaires from October 20 to November 10, 2014. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS Win 24.0 for Windows. Results: The results of the study were as follows. the average score of patient safety culture awareness of surgery nurses was 3.57±0.48, that on safety management was 4.22±0.54, and that on empowerment was 3.67±0.63. In correlational analyses, there were significant positive correlations between patient safety culture awareness and not only safety management activity but also empowerment. Moreover, patient safety culture awareness and empowerment showed meaningful positive correlations. Empowerment of nurses influences the relationship between their patient safety culture awareness and safety management activity. Conclusion: In sum, it found that empowerment of surgery nurses affects the relationship between patient safety culture awareness and safety management activity. To provide safe nursing, it is necessary to continue developing programs to increase safety management activities and educate empowerment and conduct follow-up studies of strategic policies so that patient safety culture awareness can be established and human resources within the organization can be supported.
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