Patient safety culture in a low-risk maternity hospital

Abstract

Introduction: Concern with patient safety has become a priority in the last decades, since it is a basic principle and an important requirement to guarantee the quality of care. Objective: To evaluate the patient safety culture from the perspective of the health professionals who work in a low-risk maternity hospital. Methods: A cross-sectional and quantitative study, with descriptive approach, carried out between January and March 2017 with 21 health professionals working in a nos-profit maternity hospital in the town of Lagarto, Sergipe, Brazil. The information was obtained through the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ), which evaluates in scores the attitudes and professionals' perceptions regarding patient safety in six domains. Any domain with mean≥75 points is considered a positive score. Results: The domains Teamwork Climate (score=79.1), Job Satisfaction (score=81.4), Stress Recognition (score=76.7) and Working Conditions (score=78.8) scored above 75 points. Only the domains Safety Climate (score=73.9) and Perception of Management (score=59.6) were below the expected scored for the patient safety culture. Conclusion: In general, a positive patient safety culture was found in the maternity hospital studied, with the necessity of organizational adaptations.