An exploratory study of safety culture, biological risk management and hand hygiene of healthcare professionals

Abstract

Aims: The objectives of the study were to: (1) examine the relationships between three different qualitative perceptions of safety culture and the Canadian Patient Safety Climate Survey factors; (2) determine whether these perceptions are associated with different hand hygiene practices.

Background: Healthcare-associated infections and safety cultures are a worldwide issue. During the A/H1N1 Influenza pandemic, Europe and North America did not have the same responses. Importantly, healthcare professionals' perceptions can influence patient safety through infection prevention practices like hand hygiene.

Design: A cross-sectional design was used with data collected in 2015.

Methods: The Canadian Patient Safety Culture Survey and hand hygiene observations were gathered from three healthcare centres (two Canadian and one European). Descriptive analyses and ANOVAs were conducted to explore healthcare professionals' safety perceptions and practices.

Results: The rates of hand hygiene practices varied widely between the three sites, ranging from 35-77%. One site (Site 3) was found to have the highest scores of management follow-up, feedback about incidents, supervisory leadership for safety, unit learning culture and senior leadership support for safety, and the highest levels of overall patient safety grades for the unit and organization.

Conclusion: The quantitative results of this study support the previously described model based on qualitative results: individual culture, blaming culture and collaborative culture. Differences between continents emerged regarding infection prevention practices and the way we qualify infections. The results raise concerns about infection practices and about safety cultures and challenges worldwide.

Keywords: hand hygiene practices; infection prevention and control; nursing; patient safety; safety culture.