The Impact of SPEAK UP™ on Patients' Participation and Safety among People Referring To Babolsar Hospitals

Improving the quality of patientschr('39') safety is one of the priorities of hospitals and the WHO has prioritized it as one of the basic health concerns. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the impact of "Speak Up" program in strengthening the participation and safety of patients who referred to Babolsar hospitals.

This quasi-experimental interventional study which was performed from June to December 2017. The selected patients who referred to the clinic of Shafa hospital were divided into two groups: control and experimental (50 participants in each). A pre-test was given to both samples and then training was held for the intervention group through the educational brochure. A researcher-made questionnaire was used for collecting the data based on the "SPEAK UP brochure" (α= 0.925). Wilcoxon and Mann-Whitney tests was used for testing the research hypotheses were used through SPSS 20.

The mean scores of participation, safety, learning and asking skills in post-test of the experimental group were higher than that of  their pre-test scores. Implementation of the SPEAK UP program had a significant impact on participation, safety skills, learning skills and the asking skills of the patients who referred to the hospital.

Promoting the implementation of "SPEAK UP" program through using  7 educational rules has a significant impact on the free expression of opinions, and enhancing  the patientschr('39') participation level  and improving the safety  of patients  who referred to hospitals and other health centers.