Nurses’ Compliance with Patient Safety Standards in an Accredited Hospital

Abstract

Patient safety remains one of the most critical issues facing healthcare today. Nurses are the healthcare professionals most likely to intercept errors, thus protecting the patients from harm and improving the safety of patient care. Accreditation is an internationally recognized evaluation process used to assess, promote and guarantee efficient and effective patient safety. It is now an integral part of healthcare systems in many countries. Hence, patient safety standards are the most important of all accreditation standards. The aim of this study was to assess nurses' compliance with patient safety standards in an accredited hospital through assessing their knowledge, compliance, and documentation of patient safety standards. The study was carried out at "Dar Al-Shifa" Hospital, the first Egyptian hospital to receive the Egyptian accreditation for the quality of medical services, using a descriptive cross-sectional design. It included a sample of 89 staff nurses with experience more than 6 months in the setting, and 89 patients for assessment of compliance. The data collection tools were