Nurses’ Attitude Regarding Patient Safety in Primary Healthcare Centers of Saudi Arabia: A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

Patient safety is an essential component of healthcare quality. It is clear that there is a need to analyze patient safety issues primary healthcare centers (PHCC) as an important part of the healthcare system, since most of the research that deals with patient safety issues in Saudi Arabia have been applied in hospitals rather than primary healthcare centers. The aim of this study is to assess the attitude of nurses regarding patient safety in Riyadh PHCCs of Saudi Arabia. A descriptive cross-section design was used. A sample of 314 nurses working in primary healthcare centers in Riyadh were participated in the study. A self-administered questionnaire was used for data collection which consisted of two parts covered socio-demographic data and nurses’ attitude regarding patients’ safety using the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ). The study showed that the mean age of the participants was 34.3. The participants had a positive attitude regarding teamwork climate, job satisfaction, and safety climate dimensions with weighted mean 3.64, 3.78, and 3.61 respectively while they had a negative attitude regarding perceptions of management, working conditions, and stress recognition dimensions with weighted mean 3.19, 3.12, and 2.41 respectively. The study concluded that nurses working in PHCCs of Riyadh city had a negative attitude regarding patient safety with a statistically significant difference between nurses’ attitude and their years of experience and gender while there was no statistically significant difference between nurses’ attitude and age, educational qualification, and staff position.