Croatian Use of The Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture

Introduction. Patient safety during hospitalisation is one of the biggest concerns for hospitals worldwide and one obligation of all medical professionals is to create a safe environment for patients and prevent accidents. Approximately 50% of adverse events can be prevented with a systematic approach. Aim. This study aimed to examine the underlying dimensions and psychometric properties of the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture questionnaire in Croatian hospital settings, and to compare the results with the original questionnaire from the United States of America. Methods. The sample consisted of 438 nurses from four Croatian university hospitals. All participants signed an informed consent document, and the questionnaires were provided to the nurses in their units by the head nurses of their departments. Data analysis was performed using IBM SPSS 25.0. Bartlett's test of sphericity and the Kaiser-Meyer-Olkin (KMO) indicator were performed with Cronbach’s alpha test and sample standard deviation. Results. All factors explain the total of 59% of variance of the measured questionnaire. Additionally, the reliability of the entire questionnaire was determined by using the internal consistency coefficient (Cronbach’s alpha) on the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture with 12 of 0.88 particles, which is high internal consistency reliability. Our results show that the particles that make up the questionnaire are very homogeneous according to their object of measurement. Conclusion. The results of our study found that the survey can be applied to Croatian settings and used in hospitals. We also believe that more research on this topic is needed and is crucial for improving patient safety in hospitals. It is necessary to emphasize continuous education of nurses regarding patient safety in hospitals.