Patient safety culture in Jordanian primary health-care centres as perceived by nurses: A cross-sectional study

Abstract

Background: Patient safety is a major concern, both in hospitals and primary care settings. The Jordan Medical Association has recommended that all health-care centres should try to improve patient safety through improving organizational culture, as it is in hospitals. In Jordan, a survey of patient safety culture has not yet been fully implemented in primary health-care centres. Aims: To determine attitudes of nurses regarding patient safety culture in primary health-care centres in Jordan. Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in 2017. Data were collected from 644 nurses working in all 91 accredited primary health-care centres in Jordan, based on the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire short form 36-item version. Results: The average positive response rate to the 6 domains of safety culture ranged from 58.54% to 75.63%. The highest average positive response rate was for job satisfaction and the lowest was for perceptions of management. Conclusions: The areas that need improvement from nurses’ perception are: teamwork climate, safety climate, stress recognition, and perception of management. Jordanian primary health-care nurses perceive their health centres as places that need more effort to improve safety culture.