Investigating the Predictive Role of the Safety Climate on Professional Behavior in Nurses Working in Hospitals Affiliated to Bushehr University of Medical Sciences

The safety climate, which is a subset of the organizational climate in the field of safety, mirrors the attitudes of those involved in care centers towards safety. In addition to being in connection with diverse parts of the organization’s function, the safety climate can also affect the nurses’ performance. The present study aimed at investigating the predictive role of the safety climate on professional behavior among nurses working in the hospitals affiliated to Bushehr University of Medical Sciences.

In this descriptive-analytical study, which uses the cross-sectional design, 595 expert nurses participated who had at least 6 months of experience and were employed in the wards of the hospitals affiliated to Bushehr University of Medical Sciences. The data was collected from the nurses revolving around their viewpoints, which were determined using a demographic information form, professional behavior scale and safety climate questionnaire. 

Among the diverse domains of the safety climate, the field of nursing education (p= 0.027, ß=0.104), communication with other nurses (p= 0.027, ß=0.101) and error reporting (p= <0.001, ß= 0.191) were the direct predictors of professional nursing behavior. Also, apart from the safety climate, satisfaction with nursing as a job had a direct, statistic and significant relationship with professional behavior (p= <0.001, ß= 0.142). 

This study found that most of the domains of the safety climate predicted the nurses’ professional behavior. Therefore, it is recommended that hospital administration and nursing leaders improve the safety climate by paying more attention to education and creating friendly working environments that remove nurses’ fear of penalties. All these factors can be effective in enhancing the professional behavior of nurses and increase patient safety in health care settings.