Patient safety culture in nursing homes – a cross-sectional study among nurses and nursing aides caring for residents with diabetes

Abstract

BackgroundDue to the high morbidity and disability level among diabetes patients in nursing homes, the conditions for caregivers are exceedingly complex and challenging. The patient safety culture in nursing homes should be evaluated in order to improve patient safety and the quality of care. Thus, the aim of this study was to examine the perceptions of patient safety culture of nursing personnel in nursing homes, and its associations with the participants’ (i) profession, (ii) education, (iii) specific knowledge related to their own residents with diabetes, and (iv) familiarity with clinical diabetes guidelines for older people.MethodsCross-sectional survey design. The study included 89 nursing home personnel (38 registered nurses and 51 nurse aides), 25 (28%) with advanced education, at two nursing homes. We collected self-reported questionnaire data on age, profession, education and work experience, diabetes knowledge and familiarity with diabetes guidelines. In addition, we applied the Nursing Home Survey on Patient Safety Culture instrument, with 42 items and 12 dimensions.ResultsIn general, those with advanced education scored higher in all patient safety culture dimensions than those without, however statistically significant only for the dimensions “teamwork” (mean score 81.7 and 67.7, p = 0.042) and “overall perceptions of resident safety” (mean score 90.0 and 74.3, p = 0.016). Nursing personnel who were familiar with diabetes guidelines for older people had more positive perceptions in key areas of patient safety culture, than those without familiarity with the guidelines.ConclusionsThe findings from this study show that advanced education and familiarity with current diabetes guidelines was related to adequate evaluations on essential areas of patient safety culture in nursing homes.

Beliefs and implementation of evidence‐based practice among nurses in the nursing homes of a Swiss canton: An observational cross‐sectional study

“…The median scores revealed from our investigation of EBP‐B scale scores indicated that the nurses working in nursing home settings had favourable beliefs about EBP. These results were in line with a large number of international and Swiss studies carried out in hospital settings (Belowska et al, 2020 ; Saunders & Vehvilainen‐Julkunen, 2017 ; Soleymanifar et al, 2019 ), community healthcare settings (Cruz et al, 2016 ; Titlestad et al, 2018 ) and training programmes (Gonzalez‐Torrente et al, 2012 ). In comparison with previous research carried out in nursing homes, the present study reinforced the conclusions of a study on Belgium by Demarre et al ( 2012 ) and one in Taiwan by Chang et al ( 2010 ), both of which revealed a majority of favourable beliefs about EBP in nursing homes.…”

Patient safety culture and obstacles to adverse event reporting in nursing homes

“…The majority of the literature on patient safety culture has focused on hospital settings, with relatively few studies conducted in nursing homes (Gartshore et al., 2017; Weaver et al., 2013). Quantitative surveys have been used in most studies conducted in the long‐term care facilities (Abusalem et al., 2019) or nursing homes (Desmedt, Petrovic, Beuckelaere, & Vandijck, 2018; Lin, Tseng, Hsu, Chiang, & Tseng, 2017; Ree & Wiig, 2019; Titlestad, Haugstvedt, Igland, & Graue, 2018). A few studies have reported on the relationship between patient safety culture and adverse events in nursing homes (Gartshore et al., 2017; Weaver et al., 2013).…”

Elderly individuals with diabetes and foot ulcer have a probability for healing despite extensive comorbidity and dependency

“…Consequently, both family members and health-care staff in home nursing and nursing homes require education and active support to manage this situation together with the patient [20]. Existing guidelines to prevent pressure ulcers need to be implemented also in health-care settings outside of the hospitals [58,59]. Future position statements of diabetes care for the elderly [5,60] need to include the prevention and treatment of diabetic foot ulcers.…”