How to Measure Patient Safety Culture? a Literature Review of Instruments

Introduction: Patient safety culture is described as employees’ shared values, attitudes, and behaviours in a healthcare organization. Its main goal is to improve patient safety. Assessment of patient safety culture in the hospital environment is most often carried out using self-assessment tools. Although several of these tools have been developed, their comprehensive overview is lacking in literature.

Aim: To provide an overview of instruments measuring patient safety culture in a hospital setting.

Methods: The study has a character of a narrative literature review. The search was performed in the scientific databases Scopus, ProQuest, and PubMed in January 2021. The search produced a total of 1,767 studies and was limited to language (English). The search and the retrieval process reflected PRISMA’s recommendations. The content analysis method was used in the data synthesis.

Results: We identified 24 tools for assessing the patient safety culture in a hospital setting, of which seven were developed for specific workplaces; others are considered general. Eighteen tools might be utilized by all healthcare professionals within the hospital setting and only three were designated explicitly for nurses. The most commonly used instruments were the Hospital Survey on Patient Culture and the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire.

Conclusion: Assessing a patient safety culture is considered one of the strategies for improving patient safety while increasing care quality. An appropriate tool’s choice depends on the target population, the instrument’s validity and reliability, and other aspects. Awareness of the various assessment tools can help hospitals choose the one that best suits their circumstances.