Alzahrani N, Jones R, Rizwan A, Abdel-Latif ME. Safety attitudes in hospital emergency departments: a systematic review.
Int J Health Care Qual Assur 2019;
32:1042-1054. [PMID:
31411093 PMCID:
PMC7068731 DOI:
10.1108/ijhcqa-07-2018-0164]
[Citation(s) in RCA: 7] [Impact Index Per Article: 1.4] [Reference Citation Analysis] [Abstract] [Key Words] [MESH Headings] [Track Full Text] [Download PDF] [Figures] [Journal Information] [Subscribe] [Scholar Register] [Received: 07/05/2018] [Revised: 08/10/2018] [Accepted: 09/17/2018] [Indexed: 11/17/2022]
Abstract
PURPOSE
The purpose of this paper is to perform and report a systematic review of published research on patient safety attitudes of health staff employed in hospital emergency departments (EDs).
DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH
An electronic search was conducted of PsychINFO, ProQuest, MEDLINE, EMBASE, PubMed and CINAHL databases. The review included all studies that focussed on the safety attitudes of professional hospital staff employed in EDs.
FINDINGS
Overall, the review revealed that the safety attitudes of ED health staff are generally low, especially on teamwork and management support and among nurses when compared to doctors. Conversely, two intervention studies showed the effectiveness of team building interventions on improving the safety attitudes of health staff employed in EDs.
RESEARCH LIMITATIONS/IMPLICATIONS
Six studies met the inclusion criteria, however, most of the studies demonstrated low to moderate methodological quality.
ORIGINALITY/VALUE
Teamwork, communication and management support are central to positive safety attitudes. Teamwork training can improve safety attitudes. Given that EDs are the "front-line" of hospital care and patients within EDs are especially vulnerable to medical errors, future research should focus on the safety attitudes of medical staff employed in EDs and its relationship to medical errors.
Collapse