Attitudes of Healthcare Professionals toward Patient Safety in the Operating Room

Patient safety is considered to be an inherent element of healthcare quality. Unsafe attitudes of healthcare employees are a major issue for healthcare providers in promoting the quality of care, which is closely correlated with the occurrence of hospital errors and incidents. On the other hand, development of optimal patient safety is not possible without establishing safety attitudes in healthcare facilities. The present study aimed to investigate the attitudes of healthcare providers toward patient safety in the operating room in the teaching hospitals in Isfahan, Iran. This cross-sectional, descriptive-analytical study was conducted on 217 healthcare practitioners in the teaching hospitals in Isfahan, Iran in 2018. The research units were selected via quota sampling. Data were collected using the standard safety attitude questionnaire (SAQ). Data analysis was performed in SPSS version 18 using descriptive and inferential statistics (independent t-test and Pearson's correlation-coefficient). The mean score of the total safety attitude of the healthcare providers was 59.06±11.84 (total: 100). The highest score belonged to the dimension of stress recognition, with the mean score of 79.93±17.46, and the lowest score belonged to the dimension of working conditions, with the mean score of 48.01±18.07. Accordingly, 49.3% of the participants described their patient safety attitude to be good/excellent, while 50.7% described their attitude to be average/poor. According to the results, the average safety attitude was not ideal in the operating room personnel. Therefore, it is recommended that hospital managers and staff attempt to implement effective interventions in order to promote the culture and attitude of patient safety in the operating room personnel.