CNE Article: Safety Culture In Australian Intensive Care Units: Establishing A Baseline For Quality Improvement

Abstract

A closed-book, multiple-choice examination following this article tests your under standing of the following objectives:1. Identify the importance of and interest in safety culture in the health care system. 2. Describe how workplace safety culture contributes to patient outcomes. 3. Define strategies that may improve safety and patient outcomes. Background Workplace safety culture is a crucial ingredient in patients' outcomes and is increasingly being explored as a guide for quality improvement efforts. Objectives To establish a baseline understanding of the safety culture in Australian intensive care units. Methods In a nationwide study of physicians and nurses in 10 Australian intensive care units, the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire intensive care unit version was used to measure safety culture. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize the mean scores for the 6 subscales of the questionnaire, and generalized-estimation-equations models were used to test the hypotheses that safety culture differed between physicians and nurses and between nurse leaders and bedside nurses.Results A total of 672 responses (50.6% response rate) were received: 513 (76.3%) from nurses, 89 (13.2%) from physicians, and 70 (10.4%) from respondents who did not specify their professional group. Ratings were highest for teamwork climate and lowest for perceptions of hospital management and working conditions. Four subscales, job satisfaction, teamwork climate, safety climate, and working conditions, were rated significantly higher by physicians than by nurses. Two subscales, working conditions and perceptions of hospital management, were rated significantly lower by nurse leaders than by bedside nurses. Conclusions Measuring the baseline safety culture of an intensive care unit allows leaders to implement targeted strategies to improve specific dimensions of safety culture. These strategies ultimately may improve the working conditions of staff and the care that patients receive. (American Journal of Critical Care. 2013;22:93-103)

Cultura e clima organizacional para segurança do paciente em Unidades de Terapia Intensiva

“…Similarly to other studies (20)(21) medical professionals scored higher on Teamwork climate than nursing professionals. It is not unusual for operational professionals to hold different perceptions than leadership regarding safety issues (22) .…”

“…Of the ten ICUs analyzed in a study conducted in Australia and New Zealand, nine also presented weak scores in Perception of management; the highest score was in Teamwork climate, demonstrating that respondents were more positive with regards to teamwork collaboration than the other domains (20) . Similarly to other studies (20)(21) medical professionals scored higher on Teamwork climate than nursing professionals.…”

Insights and Advances in Multidisciplinary Critical Care: A Review of Recent Research

“…63 Establishing a workplace safety culture is now considered a basic requirement for the implementation of quality improvement programs. Chaboyer and colleagues 64 conducted the first multisite study that examined perceptions of safety culture within 10 Australian ICUs, and they reported that fewer than half of respondents identified the safety culture as positive. Differences between the different professional groups in the ICU nurture the suggestion that improvement programs should be tailored to the stakeholders' respective characteristics.…”

“…Differences between the different professional groups in the ICU nurture the suggestion that improvement programs should be tailored to the stakeholders' respective characteristics. 64 Adequate risk assessment tools may help nurses considerably in enhancing patient safety. Prentiss 65 clearly described the development and subsequent validity and reliability testing of such an instrument for the early recognition of pediatric venous thromboembolism.…”

Slaugytojų Požiūris Į Pacientų Saugą

“…W Chaboyer ir kt. Australijoje atliktas požiū-rio į saugą tyrimas nustatė, kad komandinio darbo aplinka įvertinta aukščiausiais balais, o vadovybės požiūris į saugą -žemiausiais balais [5]. Mūsų atlikto tyrimo rezultatai parodė, kad sveikatos priežiūros specialistai yra patenkinti savo darbu, komandinio darbo aplinka, tačiau žemiausiais balais įvertinta vadovybės požiūrio į saugą dimensija atskleidžia, kad vadovybė nepakankamai kreipia dėmesio į pacientų saugą.…”