Purpose Older adults living in nursing homes may become vulnerable because of errors or incidents; it is necessary to create a positive safety culture to minimise such occurrences. However, safety culture is still a prevailing issue in Indonesian nursing homes. This study aims to examine factors related to resident safety culture in nursing homes located in Indonesia. Design/methodology/approach This study used a cross-sectional research design and involved 13 nursing homes in East Java province, Indonesia. Multistage cluster samplings were used to determine the respondents of this study. The respondents included 219 employees: managers, health care, supportive and administrative staff. The Indonesian version of the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire was used to measure safety culture. Findings Most of the respondents (68.5%) had a positive perspective on the nursing home’s safety culture. Staffs who had worked for six to ten years in the nursing home were 17.07 times more likely to have positive perspective on safety culture with a p-value of 0.0002. Respondents who gave direct care also had a positive perception of safety culture with a p-value of 0.008. Research limitations/implications Broader insight into safety culture needs to be provided to all staff in the nursing home. Safety topics should be included in the orientation session for new staff. Originality/value The staff’s work experience and direct care have a significant connection to safety culture.

The attention to building a safety culture in nursing homes is relatively less when compared to hospitals. Good patient safety will improve the quality of health services and minimize incidents related to patient safety. This study aims to look at efforts that can be made to improve safety culture in nursing homes. Materials and Methods:The research design uses phenomenological qualitative with in-depth interviews. Purposive sampling was used with interpretive phenomenological analysis. Participants were 29 staff from four government and private institutions in East Java, Indonesia. Results:The sub-themes resulting from the research efforts to improve the safety culture of the elderly in nursing homes are the provision of new staff orientation, training, improvement of infrastructure, and procurement of security staff. Conclusion:The analysis shows that efforts to improve safety culture can be carried out with various strategies by paying attention to risk assessment steps, patient risk identification, and management, incident reporting, and analysis, the ability to learn from incidents and their follow-up, as well as implementing solutions to minimize risks and prevent them from occurring injury. Safety culture plays an essential role in improving the quality of care.