Health Care Professionals' Knowledge Regarding Patient Safety

Healthcare professionals' perception of knowledge and implementation of Patient Safety Incident reporting and learning guidelines in specialised care units, KwaZulu‑Natal

Background

Despite the implementation of intervention strategies, incidents in specialised care units remain high and are of serious concern, worldwide.

Objectives

To assess the healthcare professionals' perception of knowledge and implementation of patient safety incident (PSI) reporting and learning guidelines in specialised care units of three selected public hospitals in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

Methods

The study used a descriptive, cross-sectional survey design. A purposive sample targeted 237 healthcare professionals. An online structured questionnaire collected the data. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyse data.

Results

A total of 181 questionnaires were returned, yielding a response rate of 76%. Notably, 83% of respondents had high-perceived knowledge of the PSI reporting and learning guidelines, while 98% had low perceptions of their implementation. The current unit (p=0.002) and shift of the day (p=0.008) were factors associated with the perception of good knowledge of PSI reporting and learning guidelines, as indicated by a p-value ≤0.05. The respondents' age (p=0.05), current unit (p=0.015), and shift of the day (p=0.000) were significantly associated with the perception of poor implementation of the PSI reporting and learning guidelines.

Conclusion

The respondents demonstrated a good perception of knowledge of PSI reporting and learning guidelines; however, the perception of the implementation was poor. Therefore, a revised implementation strategy coupled with periodical in-service training for healthcare professionals is recommended, to foster and facilitate effective adherence to PSI reporting and learning guidelines.

Contributions of the study

This study highlights the healthcare professionals' perception of knowledge and implementation of the Patient Safety Incident reporting and learning guidelines in specialised care units in South Africa. The results identified weaknesses in the implementation of the guidelines; hence the necessity for the development of effective strategies to improve patient safety.

Nurses' Intentions, Awareness and Barriers in Reporting Adverse Events: A Cross-Sectional Survey in Tertiary Hospitals in China

Purpose

This study explored nurses’ intentions, awareness and barriers in reporting adverse events in tertiary hospitals in China. We also analyzed its associated factors to increase the chance to evaluate preventable errors, enhance care delivery, and improve patient outcomes.

Patients and Methods

A cluster sampling method was used to recruit 1382 nurses from two tertiary hospitals in Chenzhou and Handan City. An online structured questionnaire was used to collect data, which included general information questionnaire (eight questions), reporting awareness questionnaire (eight items with scores ranging from 0 to 8), reporting intention questionnaire (15 items with scores ranging from 0 to 15), and reporting barriers questionnaire (22 items with scores ranging from 22 to 110).

Results

We received 1565 completed questionnaires from 1734 potential participants (a response rate of 90.25%), with 1382 valid questionnaires, yielding an effective rate of 88.31%. The scores of reporting awareness, reporting intention, and reporting barriers in adverse events for nurses in tertiary hospitals were 8 (1), 15 (0), and 83.04 (±12.21) out of 110, respectively. Reporting awareness and barriers to adverse events were positively correlated with nurses’ intention to report adverse events (r_s = 0.237 and 0.361, respectively; P < 0.001). Regression analyses showed that reporting awareness and barriers in adverse events and professional title influenced nurses’ intention to report adverse events (P < 0.05) in tertiary hospitals.

Conclusion

Nurses in tertiary hospitals have a strong intention to report adverse events. The higher the reporting awareness of adverse events or the fewer perceived reporting barriers, the stronger the nurses’ intention to report. Hospital managers should deliver patient safety education and training for nurses, to increase their reporting awareness and decrease their perceived reporting barriers, improve their intention to report adverse events.

Knowledge, attitude, practice and associated factors towards patient safety among nurses working at Asella Referral and Teaching Hospital, Ethiopia: A cross-sectional study

Background

Patient safety has been identified as a global priority area. It is one of the most health care challenges. There is a rising number of patients’ mortality in hospitals each year because of lapses in patient safety practice. Therefore, the purpose of the present study was to assess knowledge, attitude, practice, and associated factors towards patient safety among nurses working at Asella Referral and Teaching Hospital.

Methods

Institution based cross-sectional study was conducted on 172 nurses working at Asella Referral and Teaching Hospital, Arsi Zone, Oromia Regional State, Ethiopia. The data were collected from nurses from December 28, 2020 to January 05, 2021 by using a pretested questionnaire. The data were entered into Epi-Data version 4.2.0.0 and analyzed using the SPSS version 23.0 software.

Results

A total of 172 nurses were enrolled in to the study, resulting a response rate of 99.4%. The mean age of the nurses was 32.53 years. More than half 94(54.7%) of them were female. The majority 133(77.3%) of them were qualified for degrees and above. The majority 155(90.1%) of them had working experience of ≤13years. The nurse’s level of good knowledge, positive attitude, and good practice towards patient safety was 58.7% (n = 101, [95% CI; 51.7, 66.7]), 52.9% (n = 91, [95% CI; 43.6, 61.4]), and 50% (n = 86, [95% CI; 43.6, 57%]) respectively. The multivariable logistic regression analysis showed; working in the operation theatre unit [AOR = 5.01, 95% CI; 1.36, 18.46], having information on patient safety during initial education [AOR = 4.99, 95%CI; 1.87, 13.31], and having information on patient safety during continuing education [AOR = 2.85, 95% CI; 1.14, 7.12] were factors significantly associated with knowledge towards patient safety. Being male [AOR = 3.09, 95% CI; 1.38, 6.95], having working experience of >13 years [AOR = 8.37, 95% CI; 1.36, 51.70], having information on patient safety during initial education [AOR = 3.36, 95%CI; 1.11, 10.15], having information on patient safety during continuing education [AOR = 3.33, 95% CI; 1.25, 8.85], and having good Knowledge towards patient safety [AOR = 2.74, 95% CI; 1.21, 6.21] were factors significantly associated with attitude towards patient safety. Having information on patient safety during initial education [AOR = 5.35, 95%CI; 1.77, 16.17] and having a positive attitude towards patient safety [AOR = 3.02, 95% CI; 1.32, 6.91] were factors significantly associated with practice towards patient safety.

Conclusion

In the present study, more than half of the nurse’s had good knowledge and positive attitude towards patient safety. However, only half of the nurses had good practice towards patient safety. Educational programs and training on patient safety may need to take place for nurses to abate these problems.

CULTURE OF PATIENT SAFETY IN PRIMARY HEALTH CARE IN A LARGE MUNICIPALITY IN THE PERCEPTION OF WORKERS

ABSTRACT Objective: to characterize patient safety according to the perception of primary health care workers in a large city in Paraná. Method: cross-sectional study, in which information was collected using the "Research on Patient Safety Culture for Primary Care" instrument, which was self-answered by health workers working in primary care, from April to June 2017. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences program was used for data analysis. Results: it was found that as for the frequency of problems related to patient safety and quality of care, the “medical record/patient record being unavailable when needed” and “patient not getting an appointment within 48 hours was considered as a serious or acute problem”. Regarding the support of managers/administrators/leaders, the overall frequency of positive responses was only 38.4%. The section on global safety assessment showed the highest overall percentage of positive responses (79.0%). Workers in the southern region of the municipality under study had a worse assessment of the work process, communication, monitoring and manager support (45.5%, 61.6% and 29.3% of positive responses, respectively). Conclusion: it is concluded that there is a need to strengthen the culture of patient safety at this level of care, strengthening and valuing the performance of all workers, with the intensification of permanent education and the use of soft technologies.

Patient safety: knowledge, influence and attitude among physicians: an exploratory study

BACKGROUND

Patient safety is regarded as a global problem by which both developed and developing worlds are affected. It is defined as avoidance and prevention of patient injuries or adverse events, which could result during health care delivery. This study aimed to identify physicians' knowledge, influence, and attitude toward patient's safety in the faculty of medicine, Cairo university.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

A cross-sectional study was conducted on 187 postgraduate physicians of different specialties working in the faculty of medicine, Cairo University. Anonymous self-administered questionnaires were distributed. The questionnaire is one of a series of tools designed for evaluation of the pilot implementation of the World Health Organization patient safety curriculum for medical schools.

RESULTS

Calculated attitude score was relatively higher than influence, then knowledge score (median scores were 4.25, 3.1, and 2.5 respectively). There was no difference in knowledge, attitude, and influence scores by different personal characteristics as gender, specialty, workplace, graduation year except for higher influence score among physician who received inpatient safety training (p = 0.016). There was a weak positive significant correlation between knowledge and influence scores and between influence and attitude scores (r = 0.25, p = 0.002; r = 0.27, p < 0.001 respectively).

CONCLUSION

Higher patient safety positive attitude than influence and knowledge is pinpointed in physicians of different specialties in the faculty of medicine, Cairo University. This raises the attention to the importance of implementation of continuing patient safety education programs.

Defining the patient safety attitudes and influencing factors of health professionals working at maternity hospitals

AIM

To determine patient safety attitudes of midwives, nurses and physicians and to examine the difference or correlation in patient safety attitudes of midwives, nurses and physicians working in maternity hospitals.

BACKGROUND

It has been suggested that it is necessary to define the factors affecting patient safety attitudes of health professionals working in maternity hospitals.

METHODS

A descriptive and correlational design was employed.The sample comprised 58 midwives, 134 nurses and 63 physicians (255) in two maternity hospitals in Istanbul, Turkey. The data were collected using an 'information form' and a 'Patient Safety Attitude Questionnaire'.

RESULTS

The safety attitudes of participants were generally found to be negative. However, midwives had more positive patient safety attitudes and the age, unit, adequacy of patient safety training and the importance of patient safety were the most effective variables.

CONCLUSIONS

As health professionals working in maternity hospitals generally have negative patient safety attitudes and because patient safety training provided better attitudes among the participants, these training programmes should be developed and implemented considering the differences among age groups and units.

IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE

Health professionals have different views on the patient safety culture; therefore, training needs to involve everyone to create a shared vision for patient safety.