The Effect of Individual and Organizational Variables on Patients Safety Culture (PSC): A Case Study on Nurses

Background & Aims of the Study: The purpose of the hospital accreditation program is toimprove the patients safety. Prevention of mistakes in medical procedures, patients safetyrisk identification and infection prevention besides the patients safety culture (PSC) are thekey factors that must be considered in a successful patients safety program. This studyaimed to assess PSC and its association with demographic factors among nurses of ahospital in Qom, Iran.Materials & Methods: This research as a descriptive-analytical and cross-sectional studyon the effect of individual and organizational variables on patients safety culture amongnurses was conducted in 2015. The final sample included 106 employees from one of thehospitals located in Qom province of Iran. The questionnaires consisted demographicquestions and a valid questionnaire about patients safety culture. T-test, ANOVA andPearson correlation were conducted to analyze the data by SPSS V20.Results: The age of nurses was 35.15±10.33 (Mean±SD) years. Results showed that thepatients safety climate score among nurses was 70.15±7.23. In addition, there aresignificant differences between groups of work shift and also education levels in theviewpoints of patients safety (p<0.05); but, other variables were not different (P> 0.05).Conclusions: Although, based on our finding, considered hospital had a suitable situationof patients safety culture, but it is important to pay attention to continuous improvement inthe scope of health care workers and patient safety to achieve critical mission and visions oforganizing. Job selection on the basis of demographic considerations and implementation ofan accreditation plan for health care systems are two examples of how occupational safetyand health tools can be used to provide quality improvement information for health careorganizations such as hospitals.

Keywords:

Health care system , Culture , Accreditation , Nurses , patientsafety , Iran