Hospitals are one of the most important institutions providing health services that should provide a safe environment for their patients and prevent accidents for them [1]. The first goal in a medical center is to prevent harm to the patient and endanger his safety and provide health services. Studies show that one-fifth of the population is exposed to medical errors and mistakes, and as a result, millions of people may die or avoid unavoidable medical injuries as a result of these errors. Therefore, improving patient safety is a common international priority [2]. Patient safety is one of the vital components and quality indicators of health-related care [3].
Patient safety means preventing the damage caused by errors while performing the task due to negligence or those actions that reduce the risk of adverse events related to medical error [9, 8]. The current study investigated the relationship between nurses' communication features and patient safety culture in educational hospitals in Sanandaj city, Iran.


 

This correlational study was performed on 278 nurses working in educational hospitals in Sanandaj, Iran. The standard safety culture questionnaire made by Barton J.'s quality and health care research and communication skills agency was used. The standard questionnaire used was in two sections. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS 19. In the descriptive statistics section, mean and standard deviation, and in the inferential statistics, correlation tests, Mann-Whitney, Kruskal-Wallis, and linear regression were used.

Initially, patient safety culture status (HSOPSC), which is one of the common tools for examining patient safety culture in hospitals, was used. The overall mean of patient safety culture was (3.48 ± 0.62) which indicates the average of patient safety culture. The results of this section are consistent with the studies of Rezapoor et al. [34] and Mahfoozpour et al. [35] who in their research estimated the status of patient safety culture in teaching hospitals of Tehran University of Medical Sciences and Shahid Beheshti at a moderate level. This finding indicates that due to the sensitivity of the issue, there is an urgent need to improve the patient's safety culture in the hospital. Therefore, in order to strengthen the patient's safety culture, the three factors of blame, fear and silence that are destructive to any organization must be eradicated from the workplace. Errors should not be hidden but should be learned and used as a first step to eliminate the damage caused by them and improve patient safety [36].
Also, in examining the dimensions of 12 patient safety cultures, the most positive response of organizational learning and continuous improvement (84.82%) of the results of this part of the study with the findings of Sharifi et al. in Mazandaran hospitals [37] and non-punitive responses to errors ( 19/14) received the lowest positive response is consistent with the findings of Yaghoubi et al. in Sabzevar hospitals [38].
In addition, the results of inferential analysis showed that the variable of communication skills with their demographic characteristics, ie age, marital status, work experience, education level and type of employment has a positive and significant relationship with the study of Wang et al. in China [29] and Mirhaghjou et al. in Kerman Province, Iran [43], and contradicted Rezaei's studies on the lack of association between age groups and work experience with the status of safety culture [33].
Also, in examining the relationship between demographic characteristics and culture, it was shown that there is a positive and significant relationship with the variables of age, marital status, work experience, level of education and type of employment. The results of this section are consistent with studies by Sorra and Nieva at the International Agency for Research and Health Quality [30]. In analyzing this finding, it can be said that, considering the importance of the patient's safety culture, the role of demographic factors should be considered in order to have a significant effect on its improvement.

 

Based on the results of the research, the status of the patient safety culture and communication skills was moderate. To improve the patient's safety status, nurses’ communication skills should be improved. This is possible during the nurse’s formal education or in-service training.

 

The support of Kurdistan University of Medical Sciences in conducting this research is hereby thanked and appreciated. This article is an excerpt from a research project with ethics code IR.MUK.REC.1398.199.

 

The authors declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.