Patient Safety Culture and Nursing Shortage among Nurses in Al-Medina Hospitals

Abstract

This article explores the current relationship of patient safety culture to the nursing shortage in general hospitals in the city of Al-Medina, Saudi Arabia. A mixed methods article was conducted on 335 respondents drawn from 10 government hospitals in the region. We utilized an AHRQ Questionnaire for data collection, and we analyzed the data with statistical approaches such as the mean, percentages, and standard deviation. This analysis established significant relationship between patient safety cultures and nursing shortages. Furthermore, we found a weak and positive relationship between some of patient SC’s components and nursing shortages in the hospitals studied; these components included communications (r=0.144, p<0.05), the frequency of event reports (r=0.151, p<0.05), and hospital work area (r=0.329, p<0.05). Most of the nurses who participated in the current article had low incident report rates, with only three to five event reports in one year. However, among the dimensions of patient safety culture, it was found in this article that the nurses had a high level of communication (3.91±0.54/High). The overall grading of patient safety culture was moderate (3.27±0.93) in Al-Medina City. The findings of this investigation will help the Ministry of Health (MOH) decide how to improve patient safety. Moreover, to increase the condition of nursing care provided to the patients and to boost patient safety culture, the healthcare sector must consider the factors and other causes. It is also crucial that nurse leaders learn to maintain and secure patient safety and that nurses learn to frequently report incidents, including any actual errors.

Keywords: Patient Safety, Culture, Nursing Shortage

DOI: 10.7176/JHMN/100-07

Publication date:May 31^st 2022