Attitudes of Doctors and Nurses towards Patient Safety within Emergency Departments in Governmental and Private Hospitals in Northern West Bank – Palestine رسالة ماجستير

Abstract

Introduction: Several initiatives and organizations have established guidelines to give the patient safety a great priority in patient care, which became a mandatory requirement from each hospital in their accreditation process. Healthcare providers (HCPs) are also required to achieve a satisfactory level of safety attitudes towards patients, with several factors that were found to impact such attitude levels, including sociodemographic and work-related factors. Aim: The current study aimed to investigate the attitude levels among Palestinian doctors and nurses who work at the emergency departments (EDs) in Northern West Bank hospitals, as well as the most common factors related to safety attitude. Methods: A self-administered, valid version of the Safety Attitude Questionnaire (SAQ) was used to assess patient safety attitudes among a convenience sample of emergency doctors and nurses in private and governmental hospitals in Northern West Bank – Palestine, which included 31 items that assess domains of teamwork climate, safety climate, job satisfaction, stress recognition, perception of management and working conditions. Data were analyzed using SPSS, and were collected with commitment to ethical considerations of anonymity and confidentiality. Results: The sample included 45 nurses and 29 doctors with a mean age of 30.31 ± 5.74 years old, 71.6% are males and 56.8% working in the governmental sector. The mean experience level in EDs was 5.07 ± 4.73 years, and 54.1% of them stated reporting no events in the last 12 months. The overall SAQ score was 66.70 ± 11.10, indicating an average safety attitude level, which was higher in domains of job satisfaction (72.59 ± 17.95) and teamwork climate (70.27 ± 14.01), with stress recognition having the lowest attitude level (51.89 ± 17.96). Significantly better safety attitude was found among HCPs VI working in non-governmental hospitals (70.14 ± 9.19 vs 64.09 ± 11.81, p-value = 0.019), who work less hours per week (p-value = 0.047) and who reported less events in the last 12 months (p-value = 0.045), with significant prediction by the mentioned factors using regression analysis. There was a significant correlation between all domains of safety attitude and the overall score of SAQ, except for stress recognition. Conclusion: The study highlighted an average attitude level towards patient safety among emergency doctors and nurses working in Northern West Bank – Palestine, which was found to be better in the non-governmental settings, working less hours per week and less event reporting. The study findings were similar to previous studies, with the recommendation of conducting future studies with longitudinal design and covering broader settings in West Bank – Palestine