We examined nurses' perceptions of the ethical climate of their workplace and the relationships among the perceptions, medical error experience and intent to leave through a cross-sectional survey of 1826 nurses in 33 Korean public hospitals. Ethical climate was measured using the Hospital Ethical Climate Survey. Although the sampled nurses perceived their workplace ethical climate positively, 19% reported making at least one medical error during the previous year, and 25% intended to leave their jobs in the near future. Controlling for individual and organizational characteristics, we found that nurses with a more positive perception of the 'patient' dimension of ethical climate were less likely to have made medical errors. Nurses with a more positive perception of the 'patient', 'manager', 'hospital' and 'physician' dimensions of ethical climate were less likely to leave their current job. Enhancing workplace ethical climate could reduce medical errors and improve nurses' retention in public hospitals.

As final-year medical and nursing students will soon play key roles in frontline patient care, their preparedness for safe, reliable care provision is of special importance. We assessed patient safety competencies of final-year health profession students, and the effect of a 1-day patient safety education programme on these competencies. A cross-sectional survey was conducted with 233 students in three colleges of medicine, nursing, and traditional medicine in Seoul. A before-and-after study followed to evaluate the effectiveness of the curriculum. Patient safety competency was measured using the Health-Professional Education for Patients Safety Survey (H-PEPSS) and an objective patient safety knowledge test. The mean scores were 3.4 and 1.7 out of 5.0, respectively. The communication domain was rated the highest and the teamwork domain was rated the lowest. H-PEPSS scores significantly differed between the students from three colleges. The 1-day patient safety education curriculum significantly improved H-PEPSS and knowledge test scores. These results indicated that strengthening patient safety competencies, especially teamwork, of students is required in undergraduate healthcare curricula. A 1-day interprofessional patient safety education programme may be a promising strategy. The findings suggest that interprofessional patient safety education needs to be implemented as a core undergraduate course to improve students' safety competence.

Informatics competency has become an essential requirement for nurses to fulfill their professional roles. This study examined the factors affecting informatics competency to help develop strategies to improve nurses' informatics practice. A cross-sectional survey was conducted in two tertiary teaching hospitals in Seoul, Korea. A questionnaire was designed to collect data on nurses' informatics competency, basic computer skills, attitudes toward computerization, and general characteristics. The response rate was 96.4% (350/363). Multiple regression analysis was performed to determine the characteristics affecting informatics competency. More than two-thirds of the nurses (69.2%) considered their overall informatics competency to be below average. They scored the highest on the informatics topics of security and confidentiality, and the lowest on telehealth. More than half (58.9%) rated their computer skills to be below average. Nurses had favorable attitudes toward computerization. Significant factors associated with informatics competency were basic computer skills and formal informatics education. The study findings suggest that the enhancement of basic computer skills and incorporation of informatics into formal nursing curricula are needed to improve the nurses' competency in managing and using healthcare information.

This study aimed to develop and test the psychometric soundness of a patient-centred care competency (PCC) scale for hospital nurses. A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted among 594 nurses in two teaching hospitals (response rate 99.5%). Reliability and validity analyses were performed. The PCC scale consisted of 17 items divided into four subscales: respecting patients' perspectives (6 items), promoting patient involvement in care processes (5 items), providing for patient comfort (3 items) and advocating for patients (3 items). The Cronbach's alpha coefficient of the entire scale was 0.92, and those for the subscales were 0.85, 0.81, 0.84 and 0.80, respectively. Multitrait scaling analysis indicated that the four subscales had satisfactory convergent and discriminant validity. Significant correlations were found between total PCC scores and overall self-ratings of patient-centred care performance (r = 0.60, P < 0.001). The PCC scale was therefore determined to be a highly valid and reliable tool.

Nurses with perceptions of work climate emphasizing 'workgroup friendliness and warmth' and 'adherence to job standard' had lower turnover intention. Physicians, paramedicals and administrators have different WCPs. To retain qualified personnel, hospitals should focus on human relations, maintaining a consideration for occupation-specific characteristics.

Nurses showed moderate systems thinking competency. Systems thinking was a significant factor associated with patient safety. Impact Statement: The findings of this study highlight the importance of enhancing nurses' systems thinking capacity to promote patient safety.

Managers should take into account patient and clinical characteristics to promote better utilization of hospital resources.

Public hospital executives and nurse managers should be actively involved in creating a strong safety climate. Furthermore, training programmes and managerial support focussed on improving patient safety and directed at less experienced nurses, especially those working at Red Cross hospitals in rural areas, need to be emphasised to prevent errors.