Patient safety culture from the perspective of emergency nurses

Abstract

Introduction: Research conducted in the area of patient safety suggests that the probability of occurrence of medical errors in the emergency unit is more than other units. Therefore, evaluating the factors, which are probably associated with occurrence of these problems in the emergency unit, is essential. The current research was conducted to evaluate patient safety culture status from the perspective of nurses working in emergency units of educational and therapeutic centers affiliated to Tabriz University of Medical Sciences.& para;& para;Methodology: This research is a descriptive study. It was conducted using convenience sampling method. The research subjects included all nurses working in emergency units of educational and therapeutic centers affiliated to Tabriz University of Medical Sciences (N = 192). All subjects completed the HSOPSC (Hospital Survey On Patient Safety Culture) questionnaire and the collected data were analyzed using SPSS software.& para;& para;Findings: Based on the research findings, 78.6% of nurses working in emergency units did not report any error during the last 12 months, and 52.1% of nurses working in emergency units reported that observing the safety principles in the units is at the acceptable level. Based on the research findings, the score of 8 dimensions out of 12 dimensions of the patient safety culture is under 50%. Then team work dimension in units with 66.15 was found as the most powerful dimension and the non-punishment response to errors with 18.57% was found as the weakest dimension of the patient safety culture in this research.& para;& para;Conclusion: As one of the most important findings of this research was lack of reporting errors by emergency unit nursing staff, it seems that some actions need to be taken so that employees can report their errors without fear of being reproached. Paying attention to the role of management and leadership plays a key role in creating such a climate.