Abstract

Purpose: This study is aimed to provide the fundamental data for building the patient safety culture by identifying the perceptions of patient safety culture of hospital nurses. Methods: this study was a cross-sectional survey. For this study, 816 nurses participated from three general hospital and one university hospital located in Gwangju and Chonnam. The data were collected from April to June, 2012 by self-administrated questionnaires. The 'Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture'developed AHRQ(2004) and translated in Korean and edited by Je(2006), was used to measure the patient safety culture which the nurses were perceived. The collected data were analyzed with descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Scheffe test using SPSS window 18.0. Results: With a possible score of 5 points, the average score for nurses'perceived patient safety culture 3.32. In the sub dimension of patient safety culture, the score hospital-level aspects was the highest level of 3.27(0.50) and reporting system medical errors was the lowest of 3.08(0.40). The difference of perception level on patient safety culture were statistically significant depending on demographic and job-related characteristics such as age, hospital level, work experience in present hospital, work experience in present unit, work experience in present area, positions, work hours of week. Conclusion: The scores of perception of which were shown to be relatively low in this study, needed to be improved through continuous education, evaluation and researches. We suggest developing a new tool on patient safety culture fit our country which will help to manage ongoing patient safety culture.

Keywords

• Patient safety culture;
• Medical errors;
• Nurses