Perspective of Nurses toward the Patient Safety Culture in Neonatal Intensive Care Units

Infants hospitalized in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) are often severely ill, highly prone to various diseases, and exposed to complex and prolonged intensive care interventions. Consequently, they are susceptible to the lapses in teamwork and patient safety. Patient safety culture a fundamental step to improve patient safety. The present study aimed to evaluate the perspective of NICU nurses toward the patient safety culture.
This cross-sectional study was conducted in 2016. Participants were selected via census sampling, including 156 nurses working in the NICU of the teaching hospitals affiliated to Isfahan University of Medical Sciences in Isfahan, Iran. Data were collected using a demographic questionnaire and Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSOPSC). Data analysis was performed in SPSS version 16 (SPSS Inc, Chicago, IL, USA) using descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation).
Among the 12 dimensions of the patient safety culture, the highest scores were observed in the ‘teamwork within units’ (98.5%),’organizational learning-continuous development’ (87.8%), ‘feedback and communication about errors’ (80.3%), and ‘frequency of events reported’ (78.8%). The lowest scores belonged to the dimensions of ‘handoffs and transitions’ (15.3%), ‘non-punitive response to error’ (21.5%), and ‘staffing’ (37.1%).
According to the results, adherence to the dimensions of the patient safety culture was poor in the studied hospitals. Therefore, the patient safety culture requires special attention by providing proper facilities, adequate staff, developing checklists for handoffs and transitions, and surveillance and continuous monitoring by healthcare centers. Furthermore, a system-based approach should be implemented to deal with errors, while a persuasive reporting approach is needed to promote the patient safety culture in the NICUs of these hospitals.