Patient Safety Climate in Intensive Care Units at a Private Hospital

Abstract

Introduction: The patient safety climate is reflected in individual attitudes and perceptions of professionals regarding the key points of patient safety at the institutional level.

Objective: To analyze the patient safety climate as perceived by the nursing staff of the intensive care units of a private hospital in Brazil.

Methods: A quantitative research with a cross-sectional and descriptive design was developed in September 2020 in three units of a private hospital in Curitiba City, Paraná State, Brazil. The participants were sixty professionals, fourteen nurses and 46 nursing technicians, which made up a nonprobabilistic and intentional sample. Data collection was done through the application of the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire. The collected data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, Student's t-test and Mann-Whitney test. The scores greater than or equal to 75% are indicative of a positive perception about safety climate.

Results: The overall mean patient safety climate was 67.63%. Job satisfaction scored the highest (76.29%), while perception of hospital management was the lowest (58.53%). Nurses presented more positive scores and with significant difference for the category "perception of hospital management" (p=0.002), compared to nursing technicians.

Conclusion: The nursing staff perceives weaknesses with respect to management, while stimulating actions for reducing differences among workers are relevant to improve the institutional climate.