Safety Culture in Neonatal Intensive Care Units in the Gaza Strip, Palestine: A Need for Policy Change
Date
2017-01-09
Authors
Abu-El-Noor, Nasser Ibrahim
Hamdan, Motasem Abduallah
Abu-El-Noor, Mysoon Khalil
Radwan, Abdal-Karim Said
Alshaer, Ahmed Ali
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Elsevier Inc
Abstract
Introduction: Assessment of the prevailing safety culturewithin theGazan health care systemcan be used to identify
problem areas. Specifically, the need for improvements, raising awareness about patient safety, the identification
and evaluation of existing safety programs and interventions for improving the safety culture. This study
aims to assess the safety culture in the neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) in Gaza Strip hospitals and to assess
the safety culture in regards to caregivers' characteristics.
Methods: In a cross-sectional study using a census sample,we surveyed all nurses and physiciansworking in at all
the NICUs in the Gaza Strip, Palestine. The Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ) which includes six scales was
used to assess participants' attitudes towards safety culture.
Results: The overall score for SAQ was 63.9. Domains' scores ranged between 55.5 (perception of management)
and 71.8 (stress recognition). The scores reported by our participants fell below the 75 out of a possible score
of 100, which was considered as a cut-off point for a positive score. Moreover, our results revealed substantial
variation in safety culture domain scores among participating NICUs.
Conclusion: These results should be an indicator to our health care policy makers to modify current or adopt new
health care policies to improve safety culture. It should also be a call to design customized programs for improving
the safety culture in NICUs in the Gaza Strip.
Description
Keywords
Safety culture , Patient safety , Adverse events , Neonatal intensive care units (NICU) , Gaza strip