An investigation of the relationship between patient safety climate and barriers to nursing error reporting in Social Security Hospitals of Kerman Province, Iran

The receipt of appropriate and safe health care is of the basic rights of patiants and its provision is the main task of the health care delivery system. The role of error reporting in the reduction of future occurrence of that error is undeniable. Therefore, the removal of barriers to error reporting has particular importance. The present study aimed to investigate the association between patient safety climate and barriers to reporting of nursing error in Social Security Hospitals in Kerman province, Iran. This was a cross-sectional, descriptive-correlative study. The study population consisted of all nurses of Social Security Hospitals in Kerman in 2014. Sampling was performed using the census method (n = 233). The Patient Safety Climate Questionnaire and Barriers to Nursing Error Reporting Questionnaire were used after obtaining satisfactory reliability and validity. Data were analyzed using SPSS software version 16 and frequency distribution tables and central indices. To achieve goals, the parametric test of t-test, one way ANOVA, and Pearson correlation coefficient were used. The mean and standard deviations of the safety climate score (66 ± 10) and the barriers to nursing error reporting score (69 ± 13) were obtained: both were at a medium level. A significant inverse relationship was observed between patient safety climate and barriers to error reporting (P < 0.020) (r = -0.15). Based on the results, the error reporting barriers and safety climate scores were at an average level. Given the inverse relationship between safety climate and barriers to reporting error, it can be concluded that the most important step toward removing barriers is creating an atmosphere in which each of the nursing staff voluntarily reports her/his error and its causes to other members of the treatment team.