Volume 24, Issue 104, July - August, 2020

Patient safety culture and its related factors from the perspective of nurses working in intensive care units

Somayeh Meshkani¹, Ali Akbar Abdollahi², Ali Reza Faghani³, Zahra Sabzi^4♦

¹MSc in Critical Care Nursing, Nursing Research Center, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran
²Faculty member of medical-surgical nursing, Nursing Research Center of Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran
³MSc in Critical Care Nursing, Nursing Research Center, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran
⁴Assistant professor with PhD in nursing, Nursing Research Center, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran

^♦Corresponding author
Assistant professor with PhD in nursing, Nursing Research Center, Golestan University of Medical Sciences, Gorgan, Iran; Email: zsgorgan@yahoo.com

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Improving patient safety is one of the main goals of health systems all around the world. Considering the role of nurses, which is to maintain and enhance patient safety, and taking into account the importance of establishing clinical governance in health system and directing hospitals towards the creation of "patient-friendly hospitals", the present study aimed to review patient safety culture and its related factors from the perspective of nurses working in intensive care units of teaching hospitals of Golestan University of Medical Sciences. Materials and Methods: This cross-sectional study with descriptive-analytical approach was conducted in Gorgan province in 2019. The study population consisted of nurses working in intensive care units of hospitals affiliated to Golestan University of Medical Sciences. In total, 108 nurses who had the inclusion criteria were selected by stratified method from nurses working in CCUs, ICUs and hemodialysis units of hospitals affiliated to Golestan University of Medical Sciences. Data collection tools included a demographic questionnaire and a standard questionnaire of "Patient Safety Culture in Hospital". Data were analyzed by descriptive statistics and independent t-test, ANOVA and Pearson correlation coefficient at the significance level of 0.05 through SPSS-18 software. Results: The highest mean score of overall patient safety culture was observed in CCU (147±25.09), according to the nurses working in ICUs and hemodialysis units. Among the 12 aspects of patient safety culture in all three units, the highest mean and standard deviation was related to the aspect of "information transfer and exchange" (16.78 ± 3.28). There was a significant relationship between the overall score of patient safety culture, and gender and ethnicity of nurses working in ICU and hemodialysis unit (P <0.05). Conclusion: Based on the results, patient safety culture was at moderate level among nurses. Also, patient safety culture appeared to need improvement in some respects to create a safer clinical environment for patients. The punitive culture is also recommended to be replaced by a "non-punitive" culture so that, the healthcare professionals can report their mistakes without worrying about consequences.

Keywords: Patient Safety, Safety, Culture, Nurses, Intensive Care

Medical Science, 2020, 24(104), 2639-2647

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