Evaluation of an Educational Intervention on Perceptions of a Patient Safety Culture Among Staff in Acute Care Nursing Units

摘要

Patient safety has always been a central focus of nursing practice. Current research makes it increasingly clear that what occurs in the surrounding health care environment impacts patient safety. The protracted nursing shortage and nurse turnover may adversely affect patient outcomes and are exacerbated by an environment of disruptive behavior, conflict, and poor communication in the nursing workplace. The Joint Commission has identified these behaviors as key elements that jeopardize the u22culture of safetyu22 necessary to assure safe, quality patient outcomes. A culture of safety includes the attributes of teamwork, communication openness, collaboration, and a manageru27s positive focus on prevention of errors (AHRQ, 2010). There is currently no consensus on the best and practical method of patient safety culture educational interventions for practicing nurses. The purpose of this quasi-experimental, two group pretest/posttest study was to explore the influence of an online educational intervention on nursing staff perceptions of a culture of safety. The study utilized the Department of Defense u22Professional Conductu22 (2010) online toolkit, and the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety (HSOPS) to measure changes in nurse perception. The framework for the study is guided by Donabedianu27s Structure-Process-Outcome (SPO) model. Data were analyzed with independent and paired sample t-tests on the mean total safety scores, as well as repeated measures ANOVA on the mean scores of selected safety dimensions, with within and between groupsu27 variables and exploratory analysis statistics. The final chapter discusses the findings with implications for further research. Recommendations are provided for future research on staff perceptions of their work environment and how to improve that environment. Further research will provide evidence that can help foster continued growth in a culture of safety.