Assessment of Patient Safety Culture Among Nurses of Selected Hospitals in The Savannah Region, Ghana

Abstract

Millions of people are harmed whiles receiving care in hospitals, thus making patient safety a global concern for both health professionals and the public. Patient safety scholars agree that one way of ensuring a successful patient safety system is through patient safety culture. The care nurses render strategically places them at the centre of patient safety promotion; thus, making them the drivers of patient safety. The study assessed patient safety culture among nurses at the hospital and the unit levels. The researcher used a quantitative cross-sectional design to collect data from 210 respondents who were randomly selected from 3 hospitals in the Savannah Region. SPSS version 20 was used for data analysis. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were employed in this study. This study found teamwork within units as the highest with a positive response score of 82.9%. Other equally important patient safety variables with good rating scores were: manager’s support for patient safety, managers’ expectations and actions in promoting patient safety, feedback about errors, teamwork across units, and hand and transition of care. Areas with weak patient safety practices were staffing levels, open communication, and non-punitive response to errors. Again, nurses’ attitude towards adverse events reporting was generally low. Furthermore, the qualification of nurses significantly predicted adverse events reporting with nurses in the first-degree category two times more likely to report adverse events. Also, non-punitive response to errors and feedback about errors had significant influence on adverse events reporting. It is recommended that healthcare managers should strengthen patient safety areas with good rating scores to further enhance patient safety. Again, healthcare managers should provide the needed work environment that is non-punitive and blame-free. Finally, healthcare managers should encourage more nurses in Ghana to pursue higher-level nursing education.