Assessment of Patient Safety Attitude Among Doctors and Nurses at Public Specialist Hospitals in Malaysia

Patient safety remains a global problem that affects both developed and developing countries. Healthcare organizations should focus on the need of assessing safety culture as that will provide basic understanding on safety related perceptions of their staffs. Objective : This study was aimed to assess baseline level and mean score of every domain of the patient safety attitude among doctors and nurses in public hospitals in Selangor and to identify the determinants associated with patient safety attitude in all domains : teamwork, safety climate, working condition, job satisfaction, stress recognition and perception of management. Method :This was a cross-sectional study utilizing the Safety Attitude Questionnaires (SAQ) involving 142 doctors and 231 nurses in three public hospitals in Selangor. The samples were selected through proportionate stratified random sampling. Data was analysed using descriptive, bivariate and multivariate analysis. Results: The response rate was 83% in which job satisfaction and perception of management received the highest and lowest mean score, respectively. The factors associated with positive patient safety attitude towards 1)teamwork were position (OR 1.99, p=0.03) and history of attending patient safety training (OR 3.228, p = 0.000); 2) safety climate were history of attending patient safety training (OR 7.283, p = 0.000); 3) job satisfaction were education level ( OR 35.709, p=0.000), position (OR 10.598, p=0.000) and history of attending patient safety training (OR 2.883, p = 0.000); 4) perception of management were age (OR 2.084,p=0.021) and work area (OR 2.461,p=0.012); 5) working condition were age (OR2.200,p 0.003) and history of attending patient safety training (OR1.738, p 0.032). Conclusion : Respondents with history of attending patient safety training have more positive attitude towards teamwork, safety climate, job satisfaction and working condition. Improving patient safety culture should be priorotized by the hospital management team to inculcate safety culture in healthcare providers.