Examination of Nurses’ Attitudes About Patient Safety According to Sociodemographic Characteristics

Abstract

Background: Patient safety is a high priority for healthcare systems worldwide. It is considered an indicator of the quality of care. Establishing a patient  safety attitude is the first priority in order to create a patient safety culture. Nurses play a critical role in protecting and supporting patients because of  the nature of their job. In this way, especially nurses’ attitudes about patient safety will be determined, and threats to patient safety that may arise in the future will be prevented.

Methods: In this regard, this study aimed to examine the nurses’ attitudes about patient safety according to certain sociodemographic characteristics. To  accomplish this goal, the relevant data of the nurses were obtained by using the Patient Safety Attitude Scale consisting of 6 dimensions and 46 items.  The research population consists of 245 nurses working in a University hospital in Ankara. The sample was not calculated, and a questionnaire was  distributed to all employees of which 215 nurses completed the questionnaire. Data were collected between 1-30 April 2021. Ethics committee approval  was obtained from the hospital. The data obtained were subjected to multivariate regression analysis.

Results: The scale used was reliable (r=0.80). The mean of the general patient safety attitude scale is 3.22 with a standard deviation of 0.54. The majority  of the participants were found to be between the age groups of 19-26 (38.1%), women (84.7%), and single (52.1%). We also found that the weekly working  time of nurses and whether they got patient safety training or no had a statistically significant effect on patient safety attitudes (p<0.05).  Therefore, it could be said that as the working time of nurses increased, a decrease in patient safety attitudes were observed, and they exhibited more  patient safety attitudes as they got patient safety training.

Conclusion: From this point of view, determining the weekly working hours of nurses more appropriately and making them more trained about patient  safety may play a key role in creating a higher level of patient safety attitude.