Effects of Perceived Patient Safety Culture on Safety Care Activities among Nurses in General Hospitals

지방 중소병원 간호사의 환자안전문화 인식이 안전간호활동에 미치는 영향

Purpose: An objective of this study was to investigate nurses' perceptions toward patient safety culture and to examine the factors affecting safety care activities. Methods: The participants were 429 nurses, at 6 hospitals located in regions, which have 150 to 300 beds, and HSOPSC (AHRQ, 2009) and questionnaire on safety care activities were used as measurement tools. Descriptive statistics, independent t-test, one way ANOVA, and stepwise multiple regression with SPSS/WIN version12.0 were used to analyze the data. Results: Supervisor manager expectations and actions promoting patients safety and frequency of events reported were the highest as positive responses, whereas staffing and nonpunitive response to errors showed the lowest scores as positive responses. Scores of medication surveillance is the highest while firefighting surveillance is the lowest in terms of safety care activities. Significant predictors influencing safety care activities were frequency of events report, handoffs and transitions, work unit a patient safety grade, organizational learning-continuous improvement, and teamwork across units. These predictors account for 23% of the variance. Conclusion: These results suggest that hospital policies and systems should be built to settle patient safety culture effectively. Development of standard manuals for safety care activities is another critical element for promoting patient safety.