NURSES’ PERCEPTION ON PATIENT SAFETY CULTURE IN CRITICAL CARE AREA AT A TERTIARY HOSPITAL IN PAHANG, MALAYSIA

Abstract

Background: Patient safety culture is important in measuring the quality of health care. There is a need for the establishment of patient safety culture in hospitals as it is one of the global issues that requires attention. Issues such as medication errors are the third leading cause of death in the US and approximately one in ten patients have been reported being harmed while receiving hospital treatment. Adverse events such as bed falls, adverse drug effects, infections, work overload and absenteeism have become the matters of risk for the patient’s safety. Nevertheless, research that is related to patient safety were less studied in the healthcare area especially dealing with ill patients in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). Methods and Materials: A cross sectional study design was employed to explore critical care nurses’ perceptions on patients’ safety culture using a set of questionnaires (HSOPSC) distributed to 144 nurses in critical care areas with a response rate of 81.3% (n=117). The data was analysed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) 20.0 for descriptive and inferential analysis. Findings: The positive response that met the criteria (AHRQ >75%) were organizational learning (80.8%), feedback and communication about errors (78.9%) and teamwork within units (78.4%). No relationship was seen between nurses’ ages, educational backgrounds, and experiences. However, there was a significant difference between the patient safety cultural dimensions and area of working units (p < 0.05). Discussion: Critical Care nurses was found to have a positive patient safety culture attitude (positive response rates that met the criteria as stated by AHRQ’s guidelines). Nurses’ characteristics did not show any effect on their perception of patient safety cultural dimensions that are accepted in their workplace. Handling of patient safety matters might be different due to severity of cases. Conclusion: Overall the result shows positive attitude among Critical Care nurses towards the patient safety culture within their organizations．