Safety Culture Research Articles

Assessing personal protective equipment usage and its correlation with knowledge, attitudes, performance, and safety culture among workers in small and medium-sized enterprises

BackgroundThe use of personal protective equipment (PPE) should be a culture of a workplace, and deeply rooted in worker behavior and attitude during their practice. According to the recent studies only 64% of the workers use PPE properly. The present study aims to investigate the utilization of PPE among workers in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), and its relationship with knowledge, attitude, performance, and safety culture among workers.MethodsThis cross-sectional study was carried out using a questionnaire tool across SMEs in Kashan city in year 2023. The used tool included three questionnaires: demographic, safety culture, and knowledge, attitude and performance. Study papulation was 529 SMEs. Totally, the sample size was 369 persons and questionnaires were distributed among the workers of SMEs. Finally, SPSS software was used for statistical analysis and structural equation modeling. Various statistical tests including T-Test, ANOVA, RMSEA, CFI, TLI, and the chi-square ratio were employed.ResultsThe mean values (standard deviation) of age and work experience were 35.19 (12.33), and 15.60 (1.69) years, respectively. Among the 369 participants, 267 participants (72.4%) indicated that they use some PPE, although not all types. However, 102 individuals (27.7%) do not employ any PPE. The lowest score for safety culture dimension was attributed to safety training at 1.58. The results of the final model indicate that the assumed relationships between variables, as outlined in the study objectives, were well established, with all connections proving statistically significant.ConclusionIt can be concluded that the missing of inadequate legal supervision for small industries exists. Therefore, it can be inferred that if supervision and regulation are enhanced for safety training and implementation that may lead to increased usage of PPE.

Improving departmental psychological safety through a medical school-wide initiative

BackgroundPsychological safety is a team-based phenomenon whereby group members are empowered to ask questions, take appropriate risks, admit mistakes, propose novel ideas, and candidly voice concerns. Growing research supports the benefits of psychological safety in healthcare and education for patient safety, learning, and innovation. However, there is a paucity of research on how to create psychological safety, especially within academic medicine. To meet this need, the present study describes and evaluates a multi-year, medical school-wide psychological safety initiative.MethodsWe created, implemented, and assessed a multi-pronged psychological safety initiative including educational training sessions, departmental champions, videos, infographics, and targeted training for medical school leaders. Employees’ perceptions of psychological safety at both the departmental and institutional levels were assessed annually. The impact of educational training sessions was quantified by post-session surveys.ResultsDeidentified employee surveys revealed a statistically significant increase in departmental psychological safety between the first and second annual surveys. Perceived psychological safety remained lower at the institution-wide level than at the departmental level. No significant differences in psychological safety were observed based on gender, position, or employment length. Post-educational training session surveys showed that the sessions significantly increased knowledge of the topic as well as motivation to create a culture of psychological safety within the medical school.ConclusionsThis study establishes an evidence-based method for increasing psychological safety within medical school departments and serves as a template for other health professions schools seeking to promote psychological safety. Training leadership, faculty, and staff is an important first step towards creating a culture of psychological safety for everyone, including trainees.

Safety management in the construction industry: Bibliometric analysis

Despite the continuous improvement of safety standards in the construction industry, this sphere remains one of the most hazardous sectors, and safety management is becoming a crucial determinant of effective operation at construction sites. The aim of this study is to identify the essential contextual, evolutionary-chronological, and geographical-industrial scientific landscape of the development of safety management in the construction industry through comprehensive bibliometric analysis. More than 15,000 articles indexed by Scopus from around the world from 2000 to 2023 were analyzed using the VOSviewer tool, filtered by keywords such as “construction,” “safety,” and “management.” The research revealed the intensification of publishing activity since 2012 (with peak growth in 2012, 2020, and 2022). The leading scientists are from China, the United States, and the United Kingdom (e.g., Chinese scientists make up 26.1% of all scholars). The majority of papers are in the field of engineering. Priority areas of research include safety climate, safety behavior, and building information modeling. The closest connections of construction safety management are with the study of professional risks, safety techniques, and quality control. The evolution of research focuses on “human health and safety-risks-digital security systems.” In general, the findings of this study provide a foundation for future research aimed at enhancing safety management in the construction field, potentially increasing worker protection and technical operational efficiency.

The Effect of High Involving Human Resource Practices on Employee Wellbeing and Performance: A Moderating Role of Psychosocial Safety Climate

The Effect of High Involving Human Resource Practices on Employee Wellbeing and Performance: A Moderating Role of Psychosocial Safety Climate

Cultivating a psychological health and safety culture for interprofessional primary care teams through a co-created evidence-informed toolkit.

The psychological health and safety of healthcare workers workplaces and learning environments impacts the quality of healthcare services. To facilitate the psychological health and safety of interprofessional primary care teams, we curated a bilingual toolkit of 122 psychological health and safety resources comprising a multi-level categorization addressing individual, team, organization, and system-level interventions. The resources in the toolkit are organized by 7 themes, based on a clustering of the 15 psychosocial factors. Adopting the framework built on the 7 themes, this article describes the toolkit development process and how it addresses the key factors for psychologically healthy and safe workplaces to foster interprofessional collaboration. Implementation of the interventions in the toolkit is an important next step for which health system leadership is critical. Additionally, we identify several gaps and call on researchers, educators, and health leaders to address them in their future work.

Strategies for Reducing Medical Errors and Enhancing Profitability in Retail Pharmacy Management: A Holistic Approach

This study explores effective strategies to reduce medical errors and improve healthcare profitability, offering insights and evidence-based recommendations for managers and supervisors. It focuses on enhancing both patient safety and financial stability.The study analyzes strategies to mitigate medical errors and boost financial stability, such as optimizing workflows, minimizing distractions, ensuring proper medication storage, implementing prescription reviews, and providing comprehensive patient counseling. It also examines the role of organizational culture, adequate staffing, and balanced workloads in fostering a safety-oriented environment.The findings emphasize the importance of a system-oriented approach and the role of managers in promoting a culture of safety. Implementing cost-effective measures enhances patient safety and contributes to financial health.A multifaceted approach, integrating effective strategies, supportive culture, and active manager participation, is essential for reducing medical errors and improving profitability. Balancing financial goals with patient care ensures sustainability and success. Further research is needed to explore effective strategies in various healthcare settings.

Analysis of the effectiveness and user experience of employing virtual reality to enhance the efficacy of occupational safety and health learning for electrical workers and graduate students

IntroductionThe integration of engineering approaches in education and training is pivotal for reducing workplace incidents. Effective safety education increases workers' awareness of potential risks and fosters a robust Occupational Safety and Health (OSH) culture. Virtual reality (VR) offers immersive experiences that enhance the efficacy of safety training. MethodThis study evaluated VR's effectiveness through two experiments that demonstrated improved learning capacities. The first study employed quantitative methods and quasi-experiments with electrical sector technical support professionals. The second study used a qualitative approach with scenario case studies involving graduate students. ResultsThe quantitative study revealed significant improvements in OSH understanding among electrical workers, highlighting VR-based training's superiority over traditional methods. The qualitative study found positive outcomes in VR usability and user experience among graduate students, affirming VR's effectiveness in OSH education. ConclusionVR has proven to be an effective and efficient training tool for both graduate students and experienced workers. It significantly advances skills, knowledge, and proficiency in electrical engineering by providing realistic, immersive, and tailored learning experiences. As VR technology continues to evolve, its role in shaping the future of electrical technical education and training appears increasingly promising.

Patient safety culture perceptions among dentists in the eastern region of Saudi Arabia

ObjectiveSafe patient care can help reduce treatment costs, morbidity, and mortality. This study aimed to assess dentists’ perceptions of patient safety culture and related factors in the Eastern region of Saudi Arabia.MethodsThis cross-sectional study used a sample of 271 dental professionals working in private and public dental hospitals and clinics in the Eastern region of Saudi Arabia. The Safety Attitude Questionnaire (SAQ), a validated tool consisting of 36 items on a 5-point Likert scale, was used to assess dentists’ perceptions of patient safety culture. The score of SAQ ranges from 0 to 100 and a cut-off ≥ 75 is considered a positive attitude toward patient safety culture.ResultsThere were 53.9% males and 46.1% females in the study with a mean age of 35.56 ± 6.87 years. Almost half of the participants (52%) attended a course on patient safety and 22.1% experienced medical error in the last month. The mean score of the SAQ of the sample was 65.14 ± 13.03 and the patient safety score was significantly related to the marital status (P = 0.041), attendance of patient safety course (P < 0.001), and experience of medical error (P = 0.008). The highest mean score (73.27 ± 20.11) was for the job satisfaction domain, followed by the safety climate domain (67.69 ± 16.68), and working conditions domain (66.51 ± 20.43). About one-quarter of the participants (22.5%) demonstrated positive attitudes toward patient safety culture. Multiple logistic regression analysis showed that dental professionals who attended a patient safety course were 4.64 times more likely to demonstrate positive attitudes toward patient safety than those who did not attend a course (P < 0.001).ConclusionThis study showed that patient safety culture was significantly related to the attendance of safety courses, marital status, and experiencing medical error. About one out of four dental professionals demonstrated a positive attitude towards patient safety culture which was significantly associated with the attendance of the safety course.

A Bayesian network model integrating organizational, individual and psychological factors for strengthening construction worker safety behavior

Objectives. Construction worker safety behavior (CWSB) may be affected by a confluence of multilevel and interrelated factors. Cultivating and maintaining CWSB is vital for improving construction safety. Current studies focus on organization-level or individual-level CWSB antecedents. However, few studies have examined the influence of psychological factors on CWSB, thereby reducing the joint effects of multilevel factors on CWSB. Methods. To determine effective strategies for strengthening CWSB, this study adopted the Bayesian network technique to explore the interrelationships between CWSB and its antecedent factors. A Bayesian belief network model was developed and trained with data collected from Chinese construction workers, which connected organizational, individual and psychological factors with CWSB. Results. According to the sensitivity analysis, safety knowledge, safety climate and psychological capital are the three most significant influencing factors for CWSB. A combined strategy that enhances safety knowledge, safety climate and communication competence simultaneously is the most effective option for strengthening CWSB. The validation and robustness of the network showed good accuracy for safety behavior judgment. Conclusion. This study proposes an alternative way to improve safety behavior by identifying its interactive causes and illustrates the importance of initiating systematic safety measures, which may help to mitigate the problem of safety plateau.

Patient Safety Culture in the Context of Critical Care: An Observational Study.

A robust safety culture is essential for ensuring high-quality healthcare delivery. From a nursing perspective, especially among critical patients, it fosters ongoing improvement by highlighting areas that need attention. This study aimed to evaluate the perception of patient safety culture among nurses within the critical care environment. An observational study was conducted at a central hospital in Portugal employing the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSPSC) questionnaire. The study encompassed 57, nurses predominantly female (73.7%), aged 25-64. Most participants were general nurses (77.2%), with a significant proportion (61.4%) working in the emergency department and possessing an average tenure of 13 years at the facility. The perception of critical patient safety culture (CPSC) was predominantly positive (40.6%), varying by department, with intensive care nurses reporting the highest positivity rates. Teamwork was identified as a strong point, receiving 80.7% positivity, highlighting it as a well-established domain in the CPSC, whereas other domains were recognised as requiring enhancements. The study pinpointed both strengths and weaknesses within the CPSC, offering a foundation for developing targeted strategies to bolster patient safety culture in critical care settings.

Creativity and Emotional Exhaustion in Virtual Work Environments: The Ambiguous Role of Work Autonomy.

To analyze the relationship between creativity and emotional exhaustion, along with the role assumed by work autonomy in this link, in an online work context. The sample was formed of 448 employees with university studies. The statistical analysis was conducted through a simple moderation process. Creativity and work autonomy mitigate emotional exhaustion. In fact, work autonomy plays a moderating role regarding the relationship between creativity and emotional exhaustion. Control over work surely reduces the impact of work-related stressors, and this safety climate promotes adaptive and original responses that improve employees' emotional health. However, when creative demands coincide with an autonomy that extends working hours, instead of establishing limits, this supposed benefit becomes a demand that prevents employees from disconnecting, until emotionally exhausting them. A virtual work environment is an ideal habitat for creativity and self-management to improve employees' emotional health, as long as work autonomy acts as a resource.

Unpacking Perceptions on Patient Safety: A Study of Nursing Home Staff in Italy.

Nursing homes (NHs) are crucial for de-hospitalization and addressing the needs of non-self-sufficient individuals with complex health issues. This study investigates the patient safety culture (PSC) in NHs within a northern Italian region, focusing on factor influencing overall safety perceptions and their contributions to subjective judgements of safety. A cross-sectional study was conducted on 25 NHs in the Autonomous Province of Trento. The Nursing Home Survey on Patient Safety Culture (NHSPSC) was utilized to assess PSC among NH staff. Multilevel linear regression and post hoc dominance analyses were conducted to investigate variabilities in PSC among staff and NHs and to assess the extent to which PSC dimensions explain overall perceptions of PS. Analysis of 1080 questionnaires (44% response rate) revealed heterogeneity in PSC across dimensions and NHs, with management support, organizational learning, and supervisor expectations significantly influencing overall safety perceptions. Despite some areas of concern, overall safety perceptions were satisfactory. However, the correlation between individual dimensions and overall ratings of safety was moderate, suggesting the need to enhance the maturity level of PSCs. Promoting a shift in PSC could enhance transparency, prioritize resident safety, empower nursing staff, and increase family satisfaction with care provided in NHs. The support provided by management to PSC appears essential to influence NH staff perceptions of PS.

Development and Implementation of a Safety Incident Report System for Health Care Discipline Students During Clinical Internships: Observational Study.

Patient safety is a fundamental aspect of health care practice across global health systems. Safe practices, which include incident reporting systems, have proven valuable in preventing the recurrence of safety incidents. However, the accessibility of this tool for health care discipline students is not consistent, limiting their acquisition of competencies. In addition, there is no tools to familiarize students with analyzing safety incidents. Gamification has emerged as an effective strategy in health care education. This study aims to develop an incident reporting system tailored to the specific needs of health care discipline students, named Safety Incident Report System for Students. Secondary objectives included studying the performance of different groups of students in the use of the platform and training them on the correct procedures for reporting. This was an observational study carried out in 3 phases. Phase 1 consisted of the development of the web-based platform and the incident registration form. For this purpose, systems already developed and in use in Spain were taken as a basis. During phase 2, a total of 223 students in medicine and nursing with clinical internships from universities in Argentina, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Spain received an introductory seminar and were given access to the platform. Phase 3 ran in parallel and involved evaluation and feedback of the reports received as well as the opportunity to submit the students' opinion on the process. Descriptive statistics were obtained to gain information about the incidents, and mean comparisons by groups were performed to analyze the scores obtained. The final form was divided into 9 sections and consisted of 48 questions that allowed for introducing data about the incident, its causes, and proposals for an improvement plan. The platform included a personal dashboard displaying submitted reports, average scores, progression, and score rankings. A total of 105 students participated, submitting 147 reports. Incidents were mainly reported in the hospital setting, with complications of care (87/346, 25.1%) and effects of medication or medical products (82/346, 23.7%) being predominant. The most repeated causes were related confusion, oversight, or distractions (49/147, 33.3%) and absence of process verification (44/147, 29.9%). Statistically significant differences were observed between the mean final scores received by country (P<.001) and sex (P=.006) but not by studies (P=.47). Overall, participants rated the experience of using the Safety Incident Report System for Students positively. This study presents an initial adaptation of reporting systems to suit the needs of students, introducing a guided and inspiring framework that has garnered positive acceptance among students. Through this endeavor, a pathway toward a safety culture within the faculty is established. A long-term follow-up would be desirable to check the real benefits of using the tool during education. Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05350345; https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT05350345.

Relaxing into differences and energizing into differences: How group‐based play enables demographically diverse adults to co‐create a climate of psychological safety

Relaxing into differences and energizing into differences: How group‐based play enables demographically diverse adults to co‐create a climate of psychological safety

Leadership Strategies to Increase Psychological Safety of Nurses: A Longitudinal Study.

A work environment where employees feel comfortable taking chances without fear and with sufficient protection from retaliation is psychologically safe. The objective of this study was to investigate the effects of leader training for nurse managers on psychological safety of clinical registered nurses. The study was designed a longitudinal outcomes approach to assess nurse leader intervention (classes on leadership methods and psychological safety) with pre- and post-intervention measurement of nurse psychological safety at each time point. The intervention and nurse leader rounding were shown to increase individual psychological safety climate scores of clinical nurses. Psychological safety is an important component to consider in a nursing leadership role. Leadership interventions that focus on the tenets of psychological safety and include methods of being present, such as nurse leader rounding, can foster a sense of a psychologically safe environment for clinical registered nurses.

A Model of Adaptive Error Management Practices Addressing the Higher-Order Factors of the Dirty Dozen Error Classification—Implications for Organizational Resilience in Sociotechnical Systems

Within the dynamic, complex, and often safety-critical operations of many process industries, the integration of technology and human elements has given rise to sociotechnical systems (STSs), where the interaction between people and technology plays a pivotal role. To thrive in this complex environment, organizations must adopt adaptive error management strategies and cultivate organizational resilience. This approach involves managing the unexpected and designing systems to embrace disorder by organizational learning from errors in STSs. The main objective of this article was to present empirical data of error-causing elements in STSs based on the Dirty Dozen concept, their underlying structure, and implications for error causation screening and adaptive error management systems. A sample of 544 workers employed in seven process industries, such as automotive, chemicals, defense, metal, and timber, participated in this study. The results revealed a three-factor model of human error causation in STSs. Based on these results, an adaptive error management system (AEMS), which includes evidence-based interventions to manage causes of human errors and mitigate their risky consequences, was presented. Finally, implications for organizational resilience and safety culture in STSs were discussed.

Priorities of ensuring hygiene and occupational safety of medical personnel and the resilience of healthcare facilities in emergency situations

Aim. To evaluate the influence of biological and socio-political emergencies on the safety of healthcare staff members. Materials and methods. The study used bibliosemantic, statistical, and mathematical methods, analyzing official statistical data on the healthcare system state in Ukraine. Results. While performing their functions in healthcare facilities, medical workers are exposed to the risk of negative effects from biological, psychophysiological, chemical, physical, and social harmful and hazardous factors. Adverse occupational factors in hospital environments exert a complex, combined, or concurrent effect, and its impact intensity can be enormously increased in various types of emergency situations. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a steep increase in occupational injuries in the national healthcare (in fact, by 30 times) has been documented, including due to the registration of acute infectious diseases among medical personnel at the workplace. Similar trends are also evidenced in indicators of lethal injuries, professional and occupationally induced morbidity. Furthermore, Ukraine has faced overlapping emergency situations of socio-political terms, caused by the full-scale aggression of the Russian Federation, and medical-biological problems caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, significantly complicating the state of affairs. According to official data, only in the first year of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, about 1500 healthcare facilities were damaged, 106 medical workers died, including 33 at their workplace. Conclusions. The resilience of healthcare facilities to various types of emergency situations is an extremely important component of ensuring the hospital environment safety and, as practice shows, requires improvement. There is an urgent need to develop clear response algorithms for healthcare facilities to cope with emergency situations that could influence them. Reinforcing a safety culture in the national medical sector could become the goal and foundation for future strategies to create a safe hospital environment by improving and enhancing the safety culture.

Influence of perceived safety culture and safety knowledge on safety performance mediated by safety motivation

Perceived safety culture and safety knowledge are the two independent variables in this study. Safety performance is the dependent variable, and safety motivation is the mediating variable at PT. Central Kalimantan Distribution Main Unit of PLN (Persero). This research method uses a questionnaire with 101 employees of fieldwork partners at PT. PLN (Persero) Central Kalimantan Main Distribution Unit is the sample and has been selected from the population. Variable estimations utilize the LC procedure with a weight scale from 1 to 5. Utilize the partial least squares method to determine the correlation between variables X1, X2, Y, and Z. The consequences of the examination express that (1) PSC meaningfully affects SP, (2) SK affects SP, (3) SM affects SP, (4) PSC affects SM, (5) SK significantly affects SM, (6) PSC affects SP with SM Intercession and (7) SK affects SP with SM Intervention.

PATIENT SAFETY CULTURE ANALYSIS IN THE STAFF OF A SPECIALTY HOSPITAL IN ECUADOR: A CROSS SECTIONAL STUDY.

Background There are millions of deaths attributable to low levels of quality and patient safety in healthcare. One of the first steps in the journey to high reliability is to establish a solid patient safety culture. This study sought to determine the level of patient safety culture in the personnel of a specialty Hospital in Ecuador. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted with a descriptive phase comprising the presentation of results of the patient safety culture level in the staff, and an analytical phase to determine conditioning factors of this aspect. Results 344 hospital staff answers were included in the study. The most significant group of personnel who responded to the survey corresponded to medical staff (39.83%). An overall patient safety culture level of 63.86% was determined, with higher scores observed in leadership positions (73,55%) and among the medical staff (69,90%), followed by support positions (60,97%), Other staff positions (60,44%), and nursing (56,74%). The dimensions of patient safety culture identified as strengths were teamwork and hospital management support in patient safety, and as improvement areas figured response to error, and staffing and work pace. Significant differences were found between the results of the patient safety culture domains and: staff position, working time in the hospital, working time in the current area or unit, weekly working hours, and typical contact with patients during daily activities (p &lt; 0.05). Conclusions The patient safety culture level in the Ecuadorian context was determined, as well as its strengths and improvement areas. In this study, the support of hospital management support in patient safety stands out as a strength. Additionally, aspects of the staff were found to be significantly associated with the results of the patient safety culture dimensions indicating potential areas of focus for efforts to improve patient safety culture.

Quality Improvement and Risk Management Within a Culture of Safety in Dentistry

Quality Improvement and Risk Management Within a Culture of Safety in Dentistry