Understanding critical demographic variables affecting patient safety culture from nurses' viewpoints

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this study is to identify critical demographic variables that would significant influence each dimension of patient safety culture. Understanding nurses' attitudes toward patient safety is important for healthcare organizations to relentlessly improve medical quality and services for patients.

Design/methodology/approach

The internal survey data sets in 2015 and 2016 from nurses' viewpoints are used. Linear regression with forward selection is applied where nine demographic variables are the input variables, while each dimension of the Chinese version of safety attitudes questionnaire (SAQ) is the dependent variable.

Findings

Supervisor/manager is the most essential demographic variable that has significant impacts on six dimensions. Experience in organization is the other critical demographic variable.

Practical implications

Nurses who are in charge of supervisors/managers are more satisfied in six of eight dimensions. Nurses who have much experience in an organization tend to have less satisfaction in three dimensions. Therefore, hospital management should enhance the leader's effectiveness in engaging their subordinates' commitment.

Originality/value

The results enable the hospital management to pay much attention to two major demographic variables, namely supervisor/manager and experience in organization, in order to improve the patient safety culture based on the Chinese version of SAQ in this hospital. Moreover, supervisor/manager is a more critical demographic variable for nurses due to larger absolute values of standardized coefficients by linear regression with forward selection.

Citation

Chi, C.-Y., Huang, C.-H., Lee, Y.-C., Wu, C.-F. and Wu, H.-H. (2020), "Understanding critical demographic variables affecting patient safety culture from nurses' viewpoints", The TQM Journal, Vol. 32 No. 3, pp. 429-440. https://doi.org/10.1108/TQM-05-2019-0128