Measuring the safety climate in an Australian emergency department

Safety climate perceived by pre-hospital emergency care personnel-an international cross-sectional study

Introduction

Improving patient safety is one of the most critical components of modern healthcare. Emergency medical services (EMS) are, by nature, a challenging environment for ensuring patient safety. It is fast-paced, physically dangerous, and highly stressful, requiring rapid decision-making and action. This can create risks not only for patients but also for employees. We assessed variations in perceptions of safety culture in prehospital emergency care among an international sample of paramedics and nurses.

Methods

The Emergency Medical Services Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (EMS-SAQ) was used for the study. The instrument measures six domains of safety culture in the workplace: teamwork climate, job satisfaction, safety climate, working conditions, stress recognition, and perceptions of management. A total of 1,128 EMS from 9 countries participated in this study.

Results

Safety Climate was 81.32/100 (SD 6.90), Teamwork Climate 84.14/100 (SD 8.74), Perceptions of Management 76.30/100 (SD 10.54), Stress Recognition 89.86/100 (SD 5.70), Working Conditions 81.07/100 (SD 9.75), and Job Satisfaction 70.71/100 (SD 7.21). There was significant variation in safety culture scores across countries for teamwork climate (TWC), working conditions (WC), and job satisfaction (JS). Among the individual variables (age, gender, level of education, and work experience), variations in safety culture scores were unaffected by age, gender, or work experience. Organizational characteristics: employment status and position type were linked to significant variations in safety culture domain scores.

Conclusion

Participants' perceptions of the patient safety climate were not particularly satisfactory, confirming that there is still a need to develop a culture of patient safety in prehospital emergency care.

Clinical nurse competence and its effect on patient safety culture: a systematic review

BACKGROUND

Unsafe health practices are one of the leading causes of disability and even death. Competent nurses are crucial to ensure safe and high-quality healthcare services. The patient safety culture is concerned with internalizing safety beliefs, values, and attitudes, translating them into healthcare practices, and committing to maintaining an error-free health environment. A high level of competence ensures the achievement and compliance with the safety culture goal. This systematic review aims to identify the relationship between the level of nursing competence and the safety culture score and perception among nurses at their workplace.

METHODS

Four international online databases were searched to find relevant studies published between 2018 and 2022. Peer-reviewed articles using quantitative methods, targeting nursing staff, and written in English were included. After reviewing 117 identified studies, 16 full-text studies were included. The PRISMA 2020 checklist for systematic reviews was used.

RESULTS

Evaluation of the studies indicates safety culture, competency, and perception were assessed using various instruments. Safety culture was generally perceived as positive. No unique and standard tool has been developed to investigate the effect of safety competency on the perception of the safety culture in a standardized way.

CONCLUSIONS

Existing research provides evidence of a positive correlation between nursing competence and patient safety score. Future research is recommended to investigate ways to measure the effect of nursing competency level on safety culture in healthcare institutions.

The Perception of the Patient Safety Climate by Health Professionals during the COVID-19 Pandemic-International Research

The patient safety climate is a key element of quality in healthcare. It should be a priority in the healthcare systems of all countries in the world. The goal of patient safety programs is to prevent errors and reduce the potential harm to patients when using healthcare services. A safety climate is also necessary to ensure a safe working environment for healthcare professionals. The attitudes of healthcare workers toward patient safety in various aspects of work, organization and functioning of the ward are important elements of the organization’s safety culture. The aim of this study was to determine the perception of the patient safety climate by healthcare workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: The study was conducted in five European countries. The Safety Attitude Questionnaire (SAQ) short version was used for the study. A total of 1061 healthcare workers: physicians, nurses and paramedics, participated in this study. Results: All groups received the highest mean results on the stress recognition subscale (SR): nurses 98.77, paramedics 96.39 and physician 98.28. Nurses and physicians evaluated work conditions (WC) to be the lowest (47.19 and 44.99), while paramedics evaluated perceptions of management (PM) as the worst (46.44). Paramedics achieved statistically significantly lower scores compared to nurses and physicians in job satisfaction (JS), stress recognition (SR) and perception of management (PM) (p < 0.0001). Paramedics compared to nurses and physicians rank better in working conditions (WC) in relation to patient safety (16.21%). Most often, persons of lower seniority scored higher in all subscales (p = 0.001). In Poland, Spain, France, Turkey, and Greece, healthcare workers scored highest in stress recognition (SR). In Poland, Spain, France, and Turkey, they assessed working conditions (WC) as the worst, while in Greece, the perception of management (PM) had the lowest result. Conclusion: Participant perceptions about the patient safety climate were not at a particularly satisfactory level, and there is still a need for the development of patient safety culture in healthcare in Europe. Overall, positive working conditions, good management and effective teamwork can contribute to improving employees’ attitudes toward patient safety. This study was carried out during the COVID-19 pandemic and should be repeated after its completion, and comparative studies will allow for a more precise determination of the safety climate in the assessment of employees.