Variations in hospital worker perceptions of safety culture

Abstract

Objective: To compare the attitudes toward and perceptions of institutional practices that can influence patient safety between all professional groups at a university medical center.

Design: A questionnaire measuring nine dimensions of organizational and safety culture was distributed to all hospital workers. Each item was rated on a 1 ('strongly disagree') to 5 ('strongly agree') scale.

Participants: Professionals (2995), grouped as 'physicians' (16.6%), 'nurses' (40.3%), 'clinical workers' (e.g. psychologists; 21.7%), 'laboratory workers' (e.g. technicians; 11%) and 'non-medical workers' (e.g. managers; 10.4%).

Main outcome measures: One-way analysis of variances (ANOVAs) carried out separately on each dimension with professional group as the independent variable of interest.

Results: Differences in ratings of organizational and safety culture were found across professional groups. Physicians and non-medical workers tended to rate the dimensions of organizational and safety culture more positively than did nurses, clinical workers and laboratory workers. For example, physicians gave more positive ratings of 'institutional commitment to safety' than did nurses, clinical workers and laboratory workers (mean = 3.71 vs. 3.62, 3.61 and 3.58, respectively, P < 0.01) and non-medical workers gave more positive ratings than did physicians, nurses, clinical workers and laboratory workers to 'perceptions towards the hospital' (mean = 3.69 vs. 3.39, 3.36, 3.49 and 3.47, respectively, P < 0.001).

Conclusions: Interventions to promote safety culture should be tailored to the target group as attitudes and perceptions may differ among groups.