Compliance With Safety in Nursing Care, Equipment, and Physical Setting in Pediatric Wards

Patient safety, especially in children, is one of the most important issues and challenges in medicine in developed and developing countries.

The present study aimed to assess compliance with safety in pediatric wards’ nursing care, equipment, and physical setting.

In a cross-sectional study, safety compliance in 342 nursing care, equipment, and physical setting was assessed in three pediatric wards of pediatric education and treatment centers in Rasht City, Guilan Province, Iran. Data were collected via convenient sampling using 6 checklists: Safety-related individual, occupational and organizational factors, nursing care, equipment, and the physical setting. Descriptive statistics and the Mann-Whitney and Kruskal-Wallis tests were used for data analysis.

Results showed that 36% of nurses were less than 30 years, 100% were female, 80% were married, and 88% had a BS in nursing degree. Nursing care (98.92%), physical settings (93.75%), and equipment in pediatric wards had high safety. The safety of nursing care in terms of shift work (P=0.03), overtime (P<0.05), and participation in training-safety workshops (P=0.03) was significant.

Overall, the safety of pediatric patients can be improved by reducing work shifts and overtime of nurses, participating in training-safety workshops, and having an adequate supply of equipment needed to ensure safe practice in pediatric wards.