Safety Culture In Australian Intensive Care Units: Establishing A Baseline For Quality Improvement
Author(s)
Chaboyer, Wendy
Chamberlain, Di
Hewson-Conroy, Karena
Grealy, Bernadette
Elderkin, Tania
Brittin, Maureen
McCutcheon, Catherine
Longbottom, Paula
Thalib, Lukman
Year published
2013
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
BACKGROUND: Workplace safety culture is a crucial ingredient in patients' outcomes and is increasingly being explored as a guide for quality improvement efforts. OBJECTIVES: To establish a baseline understanding of the safety culture in Australian intensive care units. METHODS: In a nationwide study of physicians and nurses in 10 Australian intensive care units, the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire intensive care unit version was used to measure safety culture. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the mean scores for the 6 subscales of the questionnaire, and generalized-estimation-equations models were used to test ...
View more >BACKGROUND: Workplace safety culture is a crucial ingredient in patients' outcomes and is increasingly being explored as a guide for quality improvement efforts. OBJECTIVES: To establish a baseline understanding of the safety culture in Australian intensive care units. METHODS: In a nationwide study of physicians and nurses in 10 Australian intensive care units, the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire intensive care unit version was used to measure safety culture. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the mean scores for the 6 subscales of the questionnaire, and generalized-estimation-equations models were used to test the hypotheses that safety culture differed between physicians and nurses and between nurse leaders and bedside nurses. RESULTS: A total of 672 responses (50.6% response rate) were received: 513 (76.3%) from nurses, 89 (13.2%) from physicians, and 70 (10.4%) from respondents who did not specify their professional group. Ratings were highest for teamwork climate and lowest for perceptions of hospital management and working conditions. Four subscales, job satisfaction, teamwork climate, safety climate, and working conditions, were rated significantly higher by physicians than by nurses. Two subscales, working conditions and perceptions of hospital management, were rated significantly lower by nurse leaders than by bedside nurses. CONCLUSIONS: Measuring the baseline safety culture of an intensive care unit allows leaders to implement targeted strategies to improve specific dimensions of safety culture. These strategies ultimately may improve the working conditions of staff and the care that patients receive.
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View more >BACKGROUND: Workplace safety culture is a crucial ingredient in patients' outcomes and is increasingly being explored as a guide for quality improvement efforts. OBJECTIVES: To establish a baseline understanding of the safety culture in Australian intensive care units. METHODS: In a nationwide study of physicians and nurses in 10 Australian intensive care units, the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire intensive care unit version was used to measure safety culture. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the mean scores for the 6 subscales of the questionnaire, and generalized-estimation-equations models were used to test the hypotheses that safety culture differed between physicians and nurses and between nurse leaders and bedside nurses. RESULTS: A total of 672 responses (50.6% response rate) were received: 513 (76.3%) from nurses, 89 (13.2%) from physicians, and 70 (10.4%) from respondents who did not specify their professional group. Ratings were highest for teamwork climate and lowest for perceptions of hospital management and working conditions. Four subscales, job satisfaction, teamwork climate, safety climate, and working conditions, were rated significantly higher by physicians than by nurses. Two subscales, working conditions and perceptions of hospital management, were rated significantly lower by nurse leaders than by bedside nurses. CONCLUSIONS: Measuring the baseline safety culture of an intensive care unit allows leaders to implement targeted strategies to improve specific dimensions of safety culture. These strategies ultimately may improve the working conditions of staff and the care that patients receive.
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Journal Title
American Journal of Critical Care
Volume
22
Issue
2
Copyright Statement
Self-archiving of the author-manuscript version is not yet supported by this journal. Please refer to the journal link for access to the definitive, published version or contact the authors for more information.
Subject
Clinical Nursing: Secondary (Acute Care)
Nursing