Identifying the Components of Patient Participation in Improving thePatient Safety Culture ( A Qualitative Study)

Patient participation is among the essential factors in providing high-quality and safe services in health care centers and a primary concernfor health system managers and policymakers.

The scientific model of this research was based on qualitative interviews with hospital experts (faculty members of universities), and the sampling method was both purposive and snowball. A total of 16 qualitative interviews were conducted with the hospital experts,and the grounded theory technique was adopted to identify the components of patient participation in improving the patient safety culture. The necessity of each component extracted fromthe patient participation model was examined. The research data were analyzed using the coding method in three stages: open, axial, and selective.

The results revealed100 unreplicated nodes (codes) extracted based on the conceptual similarities of the composition and 58 common codes.Based on the researchers’ intuition and understanding of the subject, the main components and sub-components of organizational factors (giving a sense of control and responsibility, heavy tasks and the number of manpower, management and leadership, and response to errors), environmental and perceptual factors (safety communication, patient empowerment, teamwork, and evaluation), and treatment decision-making (patient’s characteristics, patient’s collaboration, and raising awareness) were categorized as tree nodes.

According to the results of this study, Patient participation is an important issue in healthcare systems. Patients can play an important role in improving immunity by actively participating in health care. Patient participation is effective in improving the quality and safety of care.