Safety Attitudes Questionnaire: Understanding Healthcare Provider Attitudes
Author Information
Author(s): Sexton John B, Helmreich Robert L, Neilands Torsten B, Rowan Kathy, Vella Keryn, Boyden James, Roberts Peter R, Thomas Eric J
Primary Institution: The University of Texas Center of Excellence for Patient Safety Research and Practice
Hypothesis
Can the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire effectively measure healthcare provider attitudes related to patient safety?
Conclusion
The Safety Attitudes Questionnaire demonstrated good psychometric properties and can be used by healthcare organizations to assess and improve caregiver attitudes towards patient safety.
Supporting Evidence
- The SAQ has been used in various healthcare settings to assess safety climate.
- Results showed substantial variability in safety attitudes across different clinical areas.
- The SAQ demonstrated strong reliability with a coefficient of 0.90.
- Healthcare organizations can benchmark their safety climate against the data from this study.
- Improvements in safety attitudes were linked to quality improvement interventions.
- SAQ scores correlated with other measures of safety climate, indicating convergent validity.
Takeaway
This study shows that healthcare workers have different feelings about safety at work, and we can use a special questionnaire to understand and improve those feelings.
Methodology
Six cross-sectional surveys were conducted with healthcare providers across 203 clinical areas in three countries, analyzing responses using multilevel factor analyses.
Potential Biases
Some factor loadings were smaller at the clinical area level compared to the individual level, indicating potential bias in group-level assessments.
Limitations
The study could not assess factor structure invariance across different countries or job categories.
Participant Demographics
Participants included full- and part-time healthcare staff from various clinical areas, including critical care units and ambulatory clinics.
Statistical Information
P-Value
<0.0001
Statistical Significance
p<0.0001
Digital Object Identifier (DOI)
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