Nurse managers can consider the predictors of patients' readiness for discharge, thus the risk of unplanned readmission and death may be reduced.

BackgroundThe first step towards establishing and improving patient safety culture in hospitals is measuring patient safety culture perceptions of staff. Few studies have examined the perception of patient safety culture in general surgery departments.ObjectivesThe objective of this study was to evaluate patient safety culture and patient safety grade in general surgery departments and to examine the relation between the patient safety culture and the patient safety grade.MethodsThis study examined patient safety culture and patient safety grades of 124 staff in seven surgery departments of a hospital in Turkey. The staff completed the hospital survey on patient safety culture and answered questions about their professional characteristics. One-way ANOVA, Independent-samples t test, corrected chi-square test, multiple correspondence analysis and Eta co-efficient were used in statistical analyses.ResultsThe patient safety dimension of “teamwork within units” had the highest mean and percentage of positive responses. The “frequency of events reported” and “non-punitive response to errors” had the lowest means and percentages of positive responses. Participants with resident or nurse positions, < age 31 years, with < 6 years of professional experience, and 60 or more work hours/week, had significantly more negative perceptions of patient safety culture than other participants. Patient safety grades and the dimensions of “management support for patient safety” and “overall perceptions of patient safety” had significantly high Eta coefficients.ConclusionFrequency of events reported and non-punitive responses to errors should be improved, and participants' characteristics should be considered at improvement efforts in general surgery departments. The dimesions with low means suggest opportunities for improvement.

If readiness for hospital discharge scale/short form is valid and reliable, patients who are unready for discharge can be determined with this scale. Thus, nurse managers can determine what kind of measures should be taken for patients who are not ready for discharge, can control nursing practices related to these patients and can provide cooperation between the nurses and other health professionals.

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Aim To test the validity and reliability of the Turkish version of the General Work Stress Scale. Background Nursing is one of the most stressful professions. The primary measure that should be taken to ensure that nurses can cope with stress is determining their stress levels. Method The General Work Stress Scale was translated into Turkish via back‐translation. Its reliability and validity were analysed via item analyses, content and construct validities, exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses, Cronbach's alpha and Spearman–Brown reliability coefficients. Average and standard deviations of the scale items and the overall scale were calculated. Results The study was conducted with 276 nurses. The Cronbach's alpha of the whole scale was 0.91, and the Spearman–Brown reliability coefficient was 0.89. According to the resulting one‐dimensional structure, the factor loadings of the scale items were between 0.67 and 0.82, and this structure alone explained 58.72% of the total variance. The confirmatory factor analysis revealed perfect and good‐fit indices (χ2/df = 1.96; RMSA = 0.06; CFI = 0.99; IFI = 0.99; GFI = 0.97; RMR = 0.04; NFI = 0.99). The mean total score was 2.55 ± 0.87, while the items' means ranged from 2.10 ± 1.15 to 3.33 ± 1.13. Conclusion The Turkish version of the General Work Stress Scale is a valid and reliable tool for assessing nurses' general work stress. Nurses largely feel that their work makes them so stressed that they wish they had a different job. The items with high means suggest opportunities for improvement. Implications for practice The nurses or nursing services and units with low or high stress levels can be determined with the General Work Stress Scale. If necessary, measures aimed at eliminating or reducing the negative effects of those nurses or nursing services and units with high stress levels can be taken in a timely manner.