Document Detail


Measuring and benchmarking safety culture: application of the safety attitudes questionnaire to an acute medical admissions unit.
MedLine Citation:
PMID:  19437091     Owner:  NLM     Status:  In-Process    
Abstract/OtherAbstract:
OBJECTIVES: To assess the safety culture in an acute medical admissions unit (AMAU) of a teaching hospital in order to benchmark results against international data and guide a unit-based, integrated, risk management strategy.
METHODS: The safety attitudes questionnaire (SAQ), a validated instrument for the measurement of safety culture was applied to an AMAU. All AMAU healthcare staff (n = 92) were surveyed: doctors, nurses, healthcare assistants (HCAs) and allied healthcare professionals (AHPs). Safety attitude scores for the overall unit and individual caregiver types were assessed across six domains of safety culture.
RESULTS: When compared against an international benchmark, the AMAU scored significantly higher for four of the six safety domains: p < 0.01 for 'teamwork climate', 'safety climate' and 'stress recognition' and p < 0.05 for 'job satisfaction'. The difference between nurse manager scores and the overall mean for the study group was statistically significant for the domains of 'teamwork climate' (p < 0.05) and 'safety climate' (p < 0.01). HCAs scored significantly lower relative to staff overall with regard to 'working conditions' (p < 0.05) and 'perceptions of management' (p < 0.01).
CONCLUSIONS: The SAQ was successfully applied to an AMAU setting giving a valuable insight into staff issues of concern across the safety spectrum: employee and environmental safety, clinical risk management and medication safety.
Authors:
E Relihan; S Glynn; D Daly; B Silke; S Ryder
Publication Detail:
Type:  Journal Article    
Journal Detail:
Title:  Irish journal of medical science     Volume:  178     ISSN:  1863-4362     ISO Abbreviation:  Ir J Med Sci     Publication Date:  2009 Dec 
Date Detail:
Created Date:  2011-04-05     Completed Date:  -     Revised Date:  -    
Medline Journal Info:
Nlm Unique ID:  7806864     Medline TA:  Ir J Med Sci     Country:  Ireland    
Other Details:
Languages:  eng     Pagination:  433-9     Citation Subset:  IM    
Affiliation:
Medication Safety, St. James’s Hospital, Dublin, Ireland. erelihan@stjames.ie
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