Patient safety culture in an intensive care unit: the perspective of the nursing team

Abstract

A survey was conducted with the goal of identifying and comparing the dimensions of patient safety culture from the perspective of nursing workers in two intensive care units. The Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture was applied between April and June 2011. It was answered by 86 workers, who were 83.49% of the nursing workers in the two intensive care units. The dimensions with the highest positive evaluations were teamwork within the units (62.8%), supervisors’/managers’ expectations and actions for safety promotion (49%) and organizational learning (46,1%). The dimensions with the lowest assessments were management support for safety (13.6%), nonpunitive responses to errors (17.5%) and general perception of safety (25.9%). The results indicate that safety culture must be developed at the study sites, with special attention to the dimensions with lower safety culture evaluations.