Perceptions of patient safety culture among emergency room nurses in Jordanian accredited hospitals

AIM: The aim of this study is to assess the perceptions of patient safety culture among emergency room nurses in Jordan. BACKGROUND: Patient safety culture is considered an international priority for health care institutions. There is a lack of studies on patient safety culture among emergency room nurses in international and Arab countries including Jordan. METHODS: A cross-sectional design was used to perform among emergency room nurses (N = 424) who are working in two health sectors (government and private) in Jordan. RESULTS: Results showed that the total perception mean of patient safety culture was 70.6% (M = 3.87, SD = 0.64), which indicates that the perceptions of patient safety culture among emergency room nurses need potential for improvement. Three areas in patient safety culture were reported as strong, including teamwork within units (77.4%; M = 3.87, SD = 0.64), feedback and communication about the error (76.6%; M = 3.83, SD = 0.65) and organisational learning-continuous improvement (75.4%; M = 3.77, SD = 0.63). The lowest scores were for areas of frequency of events reported (63.6%; M = 3.18, SD = 0.99) and handoffs and transitions (64.4%; M = 3.22, SD = 0.78). Patient safety culture was correlated with income, educational level and principal of patient safety. CONCLUSION: Regular assessment for emergency rooms is required to provide essential information to hospital managers on the areas that need improvement to promote patient safety culture.