Exploring the perception of safety culture among nurses in Saudi Arabia

BACKGROUND

Medical errors and adverse events pose a serious challenge to the global healthcare industry. Nurses are at the frontline in implementing safety measures and protecting patients. This study aimed to investigate nurses' perceptions of the patient safety culture in Saudi Arabia.

METHODS

This cross-sectional descriptive study used convenience sampling to survey 402 nurses from various hospitals in Jazan, Saudi Arabia. The Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture was used for the data collection.

RESULTS

Nurses reported a moderate perception of safety culture, with 60% positive responses. Teamwork had the highest safety culture rating at 77.8%, while responses to error and staffing were the lowest at 39.75% and 46.17%, respectively. Qualifications significantly predicts nurses' safety culture rating (B = -0442, t = -4.279, p < 0.01). Positive correlations were found between event reporting frequency and communication openness (r = 0.142, p < 0.01), and patient safety grades with communication about errors (r = 0.424, p < 0.01) and hospital management support (r = 0.231, p < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONS

Nurses in Saudi Arabia demonstrated a strong sense of teamwork and commitment to organizational learning. However, critical areas such as staffing and error response require attention to improve patient safety.

Patient-Safety Culture among Emergency and Critical Care Nurses in a Maternal and Child Department

INTRODUCTION

The quality of healthcare has multiple dimensions, but the issue of patient safety stands out due to the impact it has on health outcomes, particularly on the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), expressly SDG3. In the services that we propose to study, the patient-safety culture had never been evaluated.

AIM

To evaluate nurses' perceptions of the patient-safety culture in the Emergency and Critical Care Services of the Maternal and Child Department of a University Hospital and to identify strengths, vulnerabilities, and opportunities for improvement.

METHODS

This an exploratory, cross-sectional study with a quantitative approach, using the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture as an instrument for data collection. The population were all nurses working in the emergency and critical care services of the maternal and child-health department, constituted, at the time of writing, by 184 nurses, with a response rate of 45.7%.

RESULTS

Applying the guidelines from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), only teamwork within units had a score greater than 75%. For this reason, it is considered the strength (fortress) in the study. The lowest-rated were non-punitive responses to errors and open communication.

CONCLUSION

The overall average percentage score is below the benchmark of the AHRQ, indicating that issue of patient safety is not considered a high priority, or that the best strategies to make it visible have not yet been found. One of the important implications of this study is the opportunity to carry out a deep reflection, within the organization, that allows the development of a non-punitive work environment that is open to dialogue, and that allows the provision of safe nursing care.

Breastfeeding environment and experiences at the workplace among health workers in the Upper East Region of Ghana

BACKGROUND

Employed mothers have lower rates of breastfeeding, including health workers who are supposed to be advocates for breastfeeding. These working mothers need a supportive workplace environment to breastfeed, yet Ghana's breastfeeding policy neither mentions the workplace breastfeeding environment nor offers any information on it.

METHODS

A convergent parallel mixed-methods design was used in this study to determine: facilities with a complete breastfeeding support environment (BFSE); breastfeeding challenges experienced; coping strategies and motivators for breastfeeding among health workers in the Upper East Region of Ghana; and Management's awareness of the need for an institutional breastfeeding support policy. Quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and thematic analysis respectively. The research was conducted from January to April 2020.

RESULTS

All facilities (39) had incomplete BFSE and management representatives of health facilities (39) did not have and were not aware that their respective facilities needed to have a specific workplace breastfeeding policy that fed into the national policy agenda. Breastfeeding challenges at workplaces included: lack of private space for breastfeeding; inadequate support from co-workers and management; emotional stress; and inadequate breastfeeding breaks and work options. Women adapted to these challenges by employing coping strategies such as: bringing children to work with / without caretakers; leaving children at home; seeking support from co-workers and family members; feeding children with supplementary foods; adding annual leave to maternity leave; breastfeeding in cars / offices; and sending children to daycare. Interestingly, the women were still motivated to breastfeed. Health benefits of breastmilk, the convenience and readily available nature of breastmilk, moral obligation to breastfeed, and cheap cost of breastmilk emerged as key motivators to breastfeed.

CONCLUSION

Our findings suggest that health workers have poor BFSE and are faced with numerous breastfeeding challenges. There is a need for programs that improve BFSE in health facilities.

Comparing patient safety culture in primary, secondary and tertiary hospitals in Ghana

Objective

This study compared patient safety culture among health professionals in tertiary, secondary and primary hospitals.

Design

We conducted a cross-sectional survey among thirteen primary, secondary and tertiary hospitals in Ghana. A structured questionnaire was administered to 1,656 health professionals. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and One-Way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA).

Setting

This study was conducted in the Greater Accra, Bono and Upper East regions, representing the southern, middle and northern ecological zones, respectively.

Participants

Health professionals.

Main outcome measures

The primary outcome was patient safety culture.

Results

Five patient safety culture dimensions were rated moderate positive response, while five were rated high positive response. We found a statistically significant difference in patient safety culture across primary, secondary and tertiary hospitals (p < 0.05). For instance, the mean difference between tertiary and secondary hospitals was statistically significant (p < 0.05). Additionally, the mean difference between tertiary and primary hospitals was statistically significant (p < 0.05). There was also a significant difference in the means between secondary and primary hospitals (p < 0.05).

Conclusion

This study has demonstrated a variation in patient safety culture across Ghana's tertiary, secondary and primary hospitals. Therefore, healthcare managers and professionals should prioritise patient safety.

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Ghana [UGRF/13/MDG-001/2019-2020].

Hospital managers’ views on the state of patient safety culture across three regions in Ghana

Background

Improving patient safety culture in healthcare organisations contributes positively to the quality of care and patients’ attitudes toward care. While hospital managers undoubtedly play critical roles in creating a patient safety culture, in Ghana, qualitative studies focussing on hospital managers’ views on the state of patient safety culture in their hospitals remain scanty.

Objective

This study aimed to explore the views of hospital managers regarding compliance to patient safety culture dimensions in the selected hospitals in the Bono, Greater Accra, and Upper East regions of Ghana.

Methodology

This was a qualitative exploratory study. A purposive sampling of all hospital managers involved in patient safety practices was conducted. The sampled managers were then invited to a focus group discussion. Twelve focus group discussions with each consisting of a maximum of twelve participants were conducted. The ten patient safety culture dimensions adapted from the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality’s patient safety culture composite measures framed the interview guide. Deductive thematic content analysis was done. Lincoln and Guba’s methods of trustworthiness were applied to ensure that the findings are valid and reliable.

Findings

Positive patient safety culture behaviours such as open communication, organisational learning, and strong teamwork within units, were an established practice in the selected facilities across Ghana. Lack of teamwork across units, fear of reporting adverse events, the existence of a blame culture, inconsistent response to errors, extreme shortage of staff, sub-standard handover, lack of management support with resources constrained the patient safety culture. The lack of standardised policies on reporting adverse events and response to errors encouraged managers to use various approaches, some resulting in a blame culture. Staff shortage contributed to poor quality of safety practices including poor handover which was also influenced by lateness to duty.

Conclusion

Prompt and appropriate responses by managers to medical errors require improvements in staffing and material resources as well as the enactment of standard policies across health facilities in the country. By so doing, hospital managers would contribute significantly to patient safety, and help build a patient safety culture in the selected hospitals.

Assessing managerial patient safety practices that influence adverse events reporting among nurses in the Savannah Region, Ghana

Introduction

Patient safety is a global concern for both health professionals and the public. Studies show that evaluating patient safety culture can help improve patient safety outcomes. Nursing care strategically places nurses at the centre of patient safety promotion and their proximity to patients makes them the drivers of patient safety. Managerial decisions regarding patient safety impact greatly on patient safety outcomes in the healthcare organization. This study aimed to assess the managerial patient safety practices that influence adverse event reporting in three hospitals in the Savannah Region of Ghana.

Methods

A quantitative cross-sectional design was used to collect data from 210 participants in three hospitals. Data were analysed using descriptive, Pearson's correlation and linear regression.

Results

It was found that patient safety practices with good positive rating scores were management support (56.6%), managers' expectations (62.8%) and feedback about errors (56.2%). Areas with weak patient safety practices were staffing levels (42.4%), open communication (40.2%) and non-punitive response to errors (36.7%). Again, nurses' attitude towards adverse events reporting was generally low (37.3%). Managerial patient safety practices that had significant associations with adverse events reporting were management support ( r = .18, p < .001), open communication ( r = .19, p < .001), non-punitive to errors ( r = .21, p < .001) and feedback about errors ( r = .37, p < .001). Again, the significant predictors of adverse events reporting were feedback about errors ( β  =  .36, p < .001) and non-punitive response to errors ( β  =  .21, p  < .01).

Conclusion

Nurses perceived patient safety culture in their units to be good. Although nurses' attitude towards adverse events reporting was low, the significant predictors of adverse events reporting were feedback about errors and non-punitive response to errors. Therefore, healthcare managers should continually strengthen patient safety to ensure optimal care outcomes.

Implications for nursing practice

Feedback on errors and non-punitive response to errors had a great influence on adverse events reporting, managerial failure to provide feedback and a non-punitive work environment could result in under-reporting of adverse events. This can be a major threat to patient safety; hence clinical practice should be aware of this and put in strategies to appropriately address them.