Evaluation of patient safety culture as perceived by nurses during the COVID-19 pandemic

Objectives:A good patient safety culture(PSC)is linked to a reduced risk of patient problems and minimal undesirable occurrences.This study investigated the PSC levels from nurses'perspectives during the COVID-19 pandemic.Methods:A descriptive cross-sectional design was applied.The Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture(HSOPSC)questionnaire was administered to 315 nurses working at 2 major hospitals in Jeddah,Saudi Arabia.The data were analyzed using descriptive statistics,a t-test,and a one-way ANOVA test.The statistical significance of the correlation was determined at the 0.05 level.Results:PSC was rated as medium overall according to the nurses,with a weighted mean of 2.88–0.76 and a relative weight of 57.57%.In addition,all PSC composites were rated from medium to high,except organizational learning,which was rated low.The correlation between sociodemographic variables as well as PSC levels was investigated using the t-test and one-way ANOVA test.The association is statistically significant when P≤0.05.The findings revealed a statistically significant correlation between nurse nationality(t=-4.399,P=0.000),age(F=7.917,P=0.000),experience in years(F=3.760,P=0.024),and hospital(t=-0.401,P=0.689).Conclusions:The nurses in this study had a medium overall PSC level,and all PSC composites ranged from a medium to a high level,except organizational learning,which had a low level.In addition,the findings showed that there is a significant relationship between PSC levels,nurses'nationalities,experience in years,and the hospital itself.

Fostering Patient Safety: Importance of Nursing Documentation

Background: Nurses are professionally accountable for assessing and documenting patients’ vital signs. Nurses failing to fulfill this responsibility position their patients at risk. This paper presents two real-life cases pertaining to patients’ safety resulting in fatal outcomes, leading to the professional, legal, and ethical liability of nurses as the providers of patient care. Objective: This paper focuses on the role of organizational culture in fostering patient safety specifically in monitoring and documentation of patients’ vital signs and early recognition of warning signs. Methodology: A comprehensive literature search was conducted using various databases, examining the significance of vital signs monitoring and documentation and early warning signs in patient safety. Relevant articles combining quantitative and qualitative data were analyzed. Results: By fostering an environment of honest reporting, healthcare organizations can enhance patient safety and improve the quality of care. This paper offers valuable insights and recommendations for developing effective strategies aligned with organizational policies and protocols. Conclusion: This paper serves as a valuable resource, encouraging healthcare professionals to reflect on their practices and the organizations to assess their contributions to creating a culture of safety. It also highlights the importance of reporting and disclosing adverse events as learning opportunities and outlines the role of ethics, professionalism, legislation, and organizational support in achieving patient safety.

Patient Safety Risks and Measures for Pediatric Neurosurgery Nursing

The aim of this study was to determine the patient safety risks and measures for pediatric neurosurgery nursing.A total of 564 pediatric patients admitted to the hospital from June 2020 to June 2023 under the neurosurgery department were included in this study.We analyzed the safety incidents in pediatric neurosurgery nursing and their causes and proposed corresponding measures for pediatric neurosurgery nursing in hope to reduce the occurrence of patient safety incidents in pediatric neurosurgery nursing and establish harmonious nurse-patient relationships.

Role of nurses in improving patient safety: Evidence from surgical complications in 21 countries

Objectives: To analyze the role of nurse staffing in improving patient safety due to reducing surgical complications in member countries of Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).Methods: The number of practicing nurses' density per 1000 population and five surgical complications indicators including foreign body left in during procedure (FBL),postoperative pulmonary embolism (PPE) and deep vein thrombosis (DVT) after hip and knee replacement,postoperative sepsis after abdominal surgery (PSA) and postoperative wound dehiscence (PWD) were collected in crude rates per 100,000 hospital discharges for age group of 15 years old and over within 30 days after surgery based on surgical admission-related and all admission-related methods.The observations of 21 OECD countries were collected from OECD Health Statistics during 2010-2015 period.The statistical technique of panel data analysis including unit root test,co-integration test and dynamic long-run analysis were used to estimate the possible relationship between our panel series.Results: There were significant relationships from nurse-staffing level to reducing FBL,PPE,DVT,PSA and PWD with long-run magnitudes of-2.91,-1.30,-1.69,-2.81 and-1.12 based on surgical admission method as well as-6.12,-14.57,-7.29,-1.41 and-0.88 based on all admission method,respectively.Conclusions: A higher proportion of nurses is associated with higher patient safety resulting from lower surgical complications and adverse clinical outcomes in OECD countries.Hence,we alert policy makers about the risk of underestimating the impact of nurses on improving patient safety as well as the quality of health care services in OECD countries.

Nursing-related Patient Safety Events in Hospitals

To explore the method of identifying nursing-related patient safety events, types, contributing factors and evaluate consequences of these events in hospitals of China, incident report program was established and implemented in 15 patient units in two teaching hospitals of China to get the relevant information. Among 2935 hospitalized patients, 141 nursing-related patient safety events were reported by nurses. Theses events were categorized into 15 types. Various factors contributed to the events and the consequence varied from no harm to patient death. Most of the events were pre- ventable. It is concluded that incident reporting can provide more information about patient safety, and establishment of a program of voluntary incident reporting in hospitals of China is not only urgent but also feasible.

Hospital management priorities and key factors affecting overall perception of patient safety: a cross-sectional study

Objective:Evaluating a staff’s perception of safety culture is a critical factor in hospital management,and the knowledge of value and efficiency in hospitals is still inadequate.This study aimed to investigate the perceptions of safety culture among medical staffs and determine priorities for clear and better management.Methods:A cross-sectional survey of 595 medical staff members was conducted at 2 ter tiary hospitals in Western China using a hospital survey on patient safety culture(HSOPSC)and its value and efficiency in the hospital.Results:The dimensions with a disadvantaged positive response were nonpunitive response to error(44.6%)and staffing(42.0%).Five dimensions can explain 37.7%of the variation in the overall perception of patient safety,and handoffs and transitions are the most important dimensions(standardized coefficients 0.295).Conclusions:Hospital managers should pay more attention to nonpunitive management and staffing.Handoffs and transitions are the most important areas of potential improvement in patient safety in hospitals.

Promoting Clinician Well-Being and Patient Safety Using Human Factors Science: Reducing Unnecessary Occupational Stress

Our healthcare delivery system has accumulated complexity of payment, regulation systems, expectations and requirements. Often these are not designed to align with clinical thinking process flow of patient care. As a result, clinicians are utilizing enormous mental (cognitive) resource to comply with these complexities, over and above the baseline mental effort required to give good care to the patient. Recent studies suggest a significant number of physicians, advanced practice providers and nurses no longer want to stay in healthcare due to difficult work expectations and conditions that have become unreasonable. Technology has benefitted healthcare delivery, but also is a conduit of many expectations that have been grafted upon clinician workloads, exceeding the resources provided to accomplish them. Cognitive load is a measure of mental effort and is divided into Intrinsic, Germane and Extraneous Cognitive Load. Extraneous Cognitive Load (ECL) is what is not necessary and can be removed by better design. High cognitive load is associated with increased risk of both medical error and clinician burnout. Chronic high level occupational stress occurs from dealing with this job/resource imbalance and is showing serious personal health impact upon clinicians and the quality of the work they can provide for patients. Since organizational systems have become more complex, leadership methods, clinician wellbeing and patient safety efforts need to adjust to adapt and succeed. Safety efforts have tended to predominantly follow methods of a few decades ago with predominant focus upon how things go wrong (Safety I) but are now being encouraged to include more of the study of how things go right (Safety II). Human Factors/Ergonomics (HFE) science has been used in many industries to preserve worker wellbeing and improve system performance. Patient safety is a product of good system performance. HFE science helps inform mechanisms behind Safety I and II approach. HFE concepts augment existing burnout and safety interventions by providing a conceptual roadmap to follow that can inform how to improve the multiple human/technology, human/system, and human/work environment interfaces that comprise healthcare delivery. Healthcare leaders, by their influence over culture, resource allocation, and implementation of requirements and workflows are uniquely poised to be effective mitigators of the conditions leading to clinician burnout and latent medical error. Basic knowledge of HFE science is a strategic advantage to leaders and individuals tasked with achieving quality of care, controlling costs, and improving the experiences of receiving and providing care.

Health care staffs’ perception of patient safety culture in hospital settings and factors of importance for this

Many hospital patients are affected by adverse events. Managers are important when improving safety. The perception of patient safety culture varies among health care staff. Health care staff (n = 1023) working in medical, surgical or mixed medical-surgical health care divisions answered the 51 items (14 dimensions) Swedish Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (S-HSOPSC). Respondents with a managerial function scored higher than non-managers for 11 of 14 dimensions, indicating patient safety culture strengths for a majority of dimensions. Enrolled nurses and staff with experience > 10 years also scored high for several dimensions. The 12 dimensions and sample characteristics explained 49% and 26% of the variance for the outcome dimensions Overall Perceptions of Safety and Frequency of Incident Reporting, respectively. RNs, ENs and physicians have different views on patient safety culture. Hospital Management Support and Organisational Learning is some important factors influencing patient safety culture. Bridging the gap in health care staff’s perceptions of safety in order to improve patient safety is of utmost importance. Managers have the responsibility to foster patient safety culture at their workplace and can thus benefit from results when improving safety for patients.

Patient Safety,Adverse Healthcare Events and Near-Misses in Obstetric Care—A Systematic Literature Review

Systematic development of a patient safety culture is necessary because lack of quality care leads to human suffering. The aim of this review was to identify evidence of obstetric adverse events (AEs) and near-misses in the context of patient safety. We conducted a search of the published literature from Europe, Australia and the USA in the following databases: Cinahl, Cochrane, Maternity and Infant Care, Ovid, Pro-quest and PubMed, guided by PRISMA procedures. A total of 427 studies were screened, 15 full papers retrieved and nine studies included in the final thematic analysis. The selected papers address a broad spectrum of adverse patient safety events in obstetric care. The themes that emerged were: type of AEs, near-misses and their consequences, strategies to support and improve Patient Safety (PS) and domains related to the WHO Patient Safety competence outcomes. The findings of the first theme were grouped into the following categories: healthcare professionals’ perspectives on ethical conflicts, attributing blame and responsibility, and patients’ perspectives on lack of trust and involvement, as well as medication errors. The second theme, strategies to support interventions to improve PS, was based on two sub-themes: communicating effectively and gaining competence by learning from adverse events, while the third theme was domains related to the WHO Patient Safety competence outcomes. In conclusion, few studies have examined strategies for managing AEs despite the existence of programmes that target the implementation of changes, such as improved teamwork training. In addition to exploring strategies to make safety a priority for patients and healthcare professionals, it is of the utmost importance to improve communication with patients and between professionals in order to maintain and enhance safety. Efforts by organizations and individuals to continuously develop knowledge about the risk of AEs and the use of best practice guidelines are also essential.

Swedish Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture— Psychometric properties and health care staff’s perception

This study examined the psychometric properties of the Swedish and the original version of the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture within a Swedish hospital setting and described health care staff’s perceptions of patient safety culture. A web-survey was used to obtain data from registered nurses, enrolled nurses and physicians (N = 1023). Psychometric properties were tested using Confirmatory Factor Analysis and internal consistency using Cronbach’s alpha coefficient. Root mean square error of approximation and other fit indices indicated psychoFmetric properties for both versions to be acceptable. Internal consistency for the dimensions varied between 0.60 and 0.87. Staff scored the dimension “Teamwork Within Units” highest and the dimension “Hospital Management Support” the lowest. The safety was graded as very good or excellent by 58.9% of the respondents and one third had reported more than one event in the past 12 months. The questionnaire is considered to be useful for measuring patient safety culture in Swedish hospital settings. Managers have a great responsibility to work with improving patient safety culture.

Risk Factors for Anesthesia-Related Airway Patient Safety Incidents:A Single-Center Retrospective Case-Control Analysis from 2009 to 2022

Objective Airway-related patient safety incident(PSI)has always been the top concern of anesthesiologists because this type of incidents could severely threaten patient safety if not treated immediately and properly.This study intends to reveal the composition,prognosis,and to identify risk factors for airway related incidents reported by anesthesiologists.Methods All airway related PSIs reported by anesthesiologists in a Chinese academic hospital between September 2009 and May 2022 were collected from the PSI reporting system.Patients with airway incidents reported were matched 1:1 with controls based on sex and type of surgery.Univariable and multivariable analysis were performed to find risk factors associated with airway incident occurrence,and to evaluate influence of airway PSIs on patient prognosis.Results Among 1,038 PSIs voluntarily reported by anesthesiologists during the study period,281 cases(27.1%)were airway-related incidents,with an overall reporting incidence of 4.74 per 10,000 among 592,884 anesthesia care episodes.Only ASA physical status was found to be significant independent predictor of these airway PSIs(P=0.020).Patients with airway PSIs reported had longer extubation time(0.72±1.56 d vs.0.16±0.77 d,95%CI:0.29 to 0.82,P<0.001),longer ICU length of stay(LOS)(1.63±5.71 d vs.0.19±0.84 d,95%CI:0.57 to 2.32,P=0.001),longer post operative LOS(10.56±13.09 d vs.7.59±10.76 d,95%CI:0.41 to 5.53,P=0.023),and longer total in-hospital LOS(14.99±15.18 d vs.11.62±11.88 d,95%CI:0.46 to 6.27,P=0.024).Conclusions This single-center retrospective case-control study describes the composition of airway-related PSIs reported by anesthesiologists within thirteen years.Airway incidents might influence patient prognosis by elongating extubation time and LOS.Airway PSI data were worth analyzing to improve patient safety.

Knowledge Representation in Patient Safety Reporting: An Ontological Approach

Purpose： The current development of patient safety reporting systems is criticized for loss of information and low data quality due to the lack of a uniformed domain knowledge base and text processing functionality. To improve patient safety reporting, the present paper suggests an ontological representation of patient safety knowledge. Design/methodology/approach： We propose a framework for constructing an ontological knowledge base of patient safety. The present paper describes our design, implementation,and evaluation of the ontology at its initial stage. Findings： We describe the design and initial outcomes of the ontology implementation. The evaluation results demonstrate the clinical validity of the ontology by a self-developed survey measurement. Research limitations： The proposed ontology was developed and evaluated using a small number of information sources. Presently, US data are used, but they are not essential for the ultimate structure of the ontology.Practical implications： The goal of improving patient safety can be aided through investigating patient safety reports and providing actionable knowledge to clinical practitioners.As such, constructing a domain specific ontology for patient safety reports serves as a cornerstone in information collection and text mining methods.Originality/value： The use of ontologies provides abstracted representation of semantic information and enables a wealth of applications in a reporting system. Therefore, constructing such a knowledge base is recognized as a high priority in health care.

The Impact of Medical Profession Type, Gender, and Years of Experience on Thinking Styles: What Are the Implications for Patient Safety?

Background: Healthcare providers were faced daily with many decision-making that impacted patients’ safety. According to dual process theory, there were two types of thinking: Experiential style (ES) and Rational Style (RS). Both thinking styles had an impact on individuals’ decisions making. Therefore, the aim of this study was to find out nurses’ and physicians’ styles of thinking and how this impacted patients’ safety. Design: A cross-sectional study. Methods: Nurses and physicians sample of adults (n = 308), 190 (61.7%) of the sample were nurses and 118 (38.3%) of the sample were physicians. Participants completed a self-report online survey, which included demographic information followed by questionnaires to measure thinking style and a cognitive puzzle to see if the medical error was associated with certain styles of thinking. Results: The main findings were that nurses (M = 2.41, SD = 0.37) had significantly higher scores compared to physicians (M = 2.29, SD = 0.39) in their ES, t(305) = 2.73, p = 0.007;with medium effect size, d = 0.37692. Conclusion: Nurses differed from physicians in ES where nurses had a significantly higher score than physicians which could be positive for patients’ safety as higher ES would report errors compared to lower ES.

Patient Safety Efforts in Tanzania: A Rapid Review of Two-Decades Efforts (2002-2022) to Inform Interventions towards Attainment of 2030 Targets

Introduction: The need to address the problem of patient safety has been a focus of World Health Assembly (WHA) meetings of 2002, 2019 and 2021. The 2019 WHA Resolution urged the Member States to take action on patient safety. We aimed to review patient safety efforts in Tanzania from 2002 to 2022 to inform improvement efforts towards the 2030 target. Methods: A rapid literature review was conducted between January 2002 and April 2022. We searched Google, PubMed and PubMed Central in April and May 2022 using the following search terms: PubMed—“patient safety Tanzania”, “blood safety in Tanzania”, “safe surgery Tanzania”, and “healthcare-associated infections Tanzania”;Google—“blood safety in Tanzania”, injection safety in Tanzania”, “infection prevention and control”, “radiation safety in health facilities in Tanzania”;and PubMed Central—“injection safety in Tanzania. Results: The search identified 4160 articles, of which 4053 were removed in initial screening;21 were duplicates, giving 86 relevant articles for full screening. Of the 86 articles, 04 were removed after the full screening, hence remaining with 82 articles. Among the 82 eligible articles, 27 are on IPC, 26 on safe surgery, 12 on blood safety, 07 on radiation safety, 06 on injection safety, and 02 on medication safety. One article was relevant to—blood safety, IPC and injection safety;and one article was relevant to—IPC and injection safety. Conclusion: Most of the eligible literature was on IPC and safe surgery, followed by blood safety, radiation safety, injection safety and medication safety. The literature on IPC has highlighted the need to strengthen efforts to address AMR. Findings from the implementation of the safe surgery 2020 intervention warrants for its scale-up to other zones. There is a need to strengthen hemovigilance and pharmacovigilance functions;and strengthen quality management and assurance systems and regulatory functions to ensure radiation safety.

Effect on Patient Safety of Brief Interventions Performed by Pharmacists via Drug Profile Books: VISualization of Treatment Assist by pharmacists (VISTA) Project in Japan

In Japanese pharmacies, Drug Profile Books (DPBs), which are a type of Personal Health Record (PHR), are incorporated in order to prevent duplicate medication and drug interactions in outpatients (patients) through the uniform management of drug administration information. In this study, we tried to clarify the effect on patient safety of brief interventions via DPBs by pharmacists. The study design was a randomized controlled trial on pharmacies as clusters. 65 pharmacies agreed to participate in the study (intervention group (IG): 33;control group (CG): 32). The primary outcomes were: rate of inquiry occurrence, rate of prescription change, and rates of duplicate medications & drug interactions. 56 pharmacies (IG: 29;CG: 27) completed the study. There was a higher tendency for prescription changes in the IG compared to the CG (IG: 0.03%;CG: 0.02%;P = 0.08). In addition, the rate of duplicate medications & drug interactions accounting for the inquiries was significantly higher in the IG than in the CG (IG: 89.2%;CG: 71.9%;P = 0.01). This implied that brief interventions by pharmacists using DPBs had an effect in raising patient safety.

Translation, Cultural Adaption and Validation of Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture in Kosovo

Background: An essential condition to improve patient safety is considered to ensure a supportive patient safety culture. Measuring the culture of patient safety in all health care institutions may be a first step to target improvements. Creating a culture of safety requires eliminating the culture of blame. In order to formulate actions for improvement, it is important for hospitals to assess their baseline scores for the existing safety culture and to determine the areas of priority. Aim: The aim of this study was first to measure the use, translation in Albanian and adaptation of the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSOPSC) assessment as a tool for improving patient safety in Kosovo Hospitals. The second aim was to measure the level of patient safety culture in Kosovo, in seven hospitals and one University Clinical Center (hospitals with over 50 beds, including psychiatric hospitals). Method: The questionnaire (HSOPSC) was translated into Albanian for use in the Kosovo. It was used forward-backward translation: the questions were translated into Albanian by one translator and then translated back into English by an independent translator who was blinded to the original questionnaire. Results: In the eight-factor model, the internal consistency of the factors and the construct validity of the HSOPSC questionnaire were mostly satisfactory. The construct validity was sufficient for all subscales, except for the 4 other subscale regarding intention to report incidents which correlated poorly with other subscales. In total, HSOPSC has 12 dimensions. Cronbach’s α showed that in Kosovarian society, we could use only 8 dimensions model. Conclusion: The hypothesis that HSOPSC would be a suitable instrument to provide important indicators for the improvement of patient safety culture was tested and it was confirmed, that HSOPSC could be used as 8 dimension model. HSOPSC is suitable to improve patient safety culture and provide each hospital with a basic profile on patient safety culture and recommendations for an oriented intervention plan.

Patient Safety Culture Post Covid-19 Pandemic: In Perspective of Millennials Human Capital Issues

Background: Patient safety is the core task of any healthcare business. As medical harm caused by hospitalisation is still on the rise and patient safety culture is a struggle. We aim to determine the nature of patient safety culture in a private hospital and explore some unique human resource problems in Malaysia. Methods: In our case study, we use the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSOPSC) questionnaire to measure the 12 dimensions of patient safety culture. The survey received 281 respondents (76% response rate) from all the millennial frontline healthcare providers, including doctors, nurses and allied healthcare providers. The result of the survey was used as the basis to further explore the problems in this hospital. In-depth interviews, observation and document reviews were conducted in relation to human resource problems. This study used IBM SPSS 26 for Windows for statistical analysis and Atlas ti.8 for qualitative analysis of open comments. We used Interpretive Phenomenological Interpretation for analysis of data after triangulation. Results: The overall average positive response rate for the 12 patient safety culture dimensions of the HSOPSC survey was 64%. The result showed that the staff feels positively toward patient safety culture in this hospital. The dimension that received good performance is “Manager expectation”, “Management support for patient safety” and “Organisational learning”. The dimension with the poor performance was “Staffing”, “Frequency of error reporting”, “Teamwork across units”, and “Handoff and transitions”. The open comments indicated inadequate staffing and nursing retention issues. Interviews, observation and document reviews related to staffing reveal high turnover rates among millennial nurses, high overtime and on-call rates, chaotic units with procedures, doctors’ round, admission and discharges mainly in medical and surgical units causing distraction. Poor shared governance is the biggest challenges that need immediate attention post Covid-19 pandemic. Conclusions: The HSOPSC measurement gave valuable insights on patient safety culture in a private hospital in Malaysia. The overall perception of patient safety culture was satisfactory. The poor positive response rate for “Staffing” dimension and the open comments suggests a need for an urgent need for retention and human resource management strategies to prevent brain drain due to high turnover rates, especially among millennial nurses. The key factors causing dissatisfaction and brain drain among nurses are the lack of shared governance.

The effects of Professional Commitment and Patient Safety knowledge-attitude-practice on Undergraduate nursing students’ Humanistic Care Ability in clinical practice

Objective:To describe the status quo of humanistic care ability,the knowledge-attitude-practice of Patient Safety and professional commitment among Undergraduate Nursing Students in clinical practice,and to determine the effects of professional commitment and patient safety knowledge-attitude-practice on humanistic care ability.Methods:Two hundred and thirty-two undergraduate nursing students in clinical practice were investigated with the general questionnaire,Caring Ability Inventory(CAI),Patients Safety knowledge-attitude-practice(KAP)Questionnaire and the Nursing Professional Commitment Scale.Results:The score of humanistic care ability of nursing undergraduates was 185.19±20.95,patients safety KAP score was 106.94±11.62,professional commitment score was 74.93±10.44.Undergraduate nursing students’humanistic care ability were positively correlated with professional commitment and patients safety KAP(P<0.05).Multiple Linear regression analysis showed that professional commitment,patient safety KAP entered the humane care equation(F=24.051,P<0.001),and explained 39.1%of the total variation in humane care.Intermediate effect analysis shows that patient safety played a partial mediating role in professional commitment and humane care.Conclusion:The professional commitment and patient safety KAP of undergraduate nursing students were positively related to their humanistic care ability.Improving the professional commitment and knowledge and patients safety KAP of nursing students can strengthen their humanistic care ability to provide high-quality nursing for patients.

Evidence of Linkages between Patient Safety and Person-Centred Care in the Maternity and Obstetric Context—An Integrative Review

The aim was to evaluate the current state of knowledge pertaining to patient safety and its link to person-centred care. The international relevance of patient safety has expanded, as have the models of person-centred care. Inspired by this new trend, we collated and summarized the literature for evidence of the two topics. The study was guided by Russell, Whittemore and Knafl’s integrative review framework. An electronic database search was conducted for relevant articles from 2005 to 2016. This review was conducted in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines. The structure and process of the evaluation of the evidence are described and the findings interpreted by means of a thematic synthesis. One theme emerged: trustful, safe communication in the relationship between the patient, family members and healthcare professionals and two domains;safety culture and multidisciplinary capacity building. The dominant dimension in the safety culture domain is respectful communication, which implies sharing experiences that lead to a sense of control during labour and birth and is related to the women’s feeling of personal capacity. The dominant dimensions in the multidisciplinary capacity building domain are collaborative teamwork, coordination and risk management, knowledge sharing and patient-centred communication. In conclusion, to enhance patient safety, it is necessary to develop patient-focused, evidence-based skills and guidelines as well as a supportive organization. Due to their interaction with patients, midwives’ communication competence on the part of midwives is essential for supporting the birth and fulfilling the women’s needs and expectations.

The Use and Misuse of Mobile Phones in the Maternity Ward—A Threat to Patient Safety?

An important task for the midwife is following up mother-child interaction to facilitate mother-infant attachment. The aim of this study was to explore midwives’ perceptions of parents’ use of mobile phones in the maternity ward. The research question was: Is the use of mobile phones in the maternity ward a threat to patient safety? Two focus group interviews exploring midwives’ perceptions (n = 10) of parent’ use of mobile phones during and after the birth were conducted in January 2016. Systematic text condensation was used to analyse the data, revealing three themes pertaining to safety concerns: Interrupted communication due to parents’ excessive use of mobile phones during labour and postnatally, Unsafe care caused by lack of attention to the newborn baby’s signals as a result of being disturbed by the mobile phone and Unsafe care because of parents interrupting their conversation with the midwife by answering the mobile, acting in a disrespectful manner and failing to pay attention. The midwives’ descriptions of parents’ use of mobile phones in the maternity ward included reflections on mobile phone usage as a permanent phenomenon. They were concerned that parents’ use of mobile phones in the maternity ward could negatively affect the attachment process and considered that it interrupted their work. In conclusion, there is a need for increased awareness of parents’ use of mobile phones in the maternity ward. Further research is required to gain greater insight into the consequences of mobile phone use in order to promote patient safety by ensuring effective communication between parents and midwives. In addition, research is needed to explore the safety discourse, clinical risks and/or health problems involved in the development of infant-parent attachment in newborn babies.