Healthcare professionals' knowledge, attitudes and skills regarding patient safety: a systematic literature review

Abstract

The purpose of this literature review was to determine the extent of existing knowledge about healthcare professionals' knowledge, attitudes and skills related to patient safety. A systematic review was performed using two electronic databases: MEDLINE (Ovid) and CINAHL (EBSCO) for the period 2000-2012. The inclusion criteria were peer-reviewed articles or empirical studies, published in English. The focus groups of the study were physicians, head nurses, nurses and nurse assistants. Altogether, 18 studies met the criteria and were included. Inductive content analysis was carried out to analyse and categorise the data. The investigated themes regarding healthcare professionals' knowledge of patient safety were their existing knowledge level, knowledge deficits and knowledge improvement. Results considered the target groups' overall attitudes to patient safety, attitudes to event reporting and safety attitude improvement. The investigations into healthcare professionals' skills included mathematical skills and those related to achieving patient safety. From this review, it is concluded that further research should be conducted into the investigation of healthcare professionals' knowledge and skills in patient safety.

Perceptions and experiences of perioperative nurses and nurse anaesthetists in robotic‐assisted surgery

“…The participants reported that when a skilled surgeon and competent surgical team performed RALS, the potential for reduced operative time and better patient outcomes were increased. These findings are consistent with previous research (Brasaite, Kaunonen, & Suominen, 2015;Gershman et al, 2016;Sexton et al, 2018).…”

Patient safety: knowledge, influence and attitude among physicians: an exploratory study

“…Higher positive attitude than gained knowledge toward patient safety pinpointed in this study is a common finding throughout related studies [12,15,17,19]. Strikingly, there was not any correlation between knowledge and attitudes of participants in the current study.…”

“…The median years since fellowship completion was 13 years in a study by Berman et al [15], which was an online survey, conducted on 353 surgeons addressing knowledge, attitudes, and perceptions surrounding the culture of patient safety. In a systematic review conducted by Brasaite et al, most of the health care professionals had many years of work experience (mean = 23.9 years) and their mean age was 46.7 years [12].…”

“…Sample size was calculated by epi info 7 software (Atlanta, Georgia, USA). According to a systematic literature review performed among healthcare staff, the level of knowledge and attitude about patient safety has a very wide variation [12]. Accordingly, expected frequency was set at 50 % and confidence limits were set at 5%; this resulted in sample size estimates of 200 participants for 85% power of the study.…”

‘It's a matter of patient safety’: understanding challenges in everyday clinical practice for achieving good care on the surgical ward – a qualitative study

“…Although demands for effectiveness are high in surgical wards, quality of care and patient safety must also be secured. However, a recent systematic review reports that healthcare systems face a major challenge in ensuring safe care and preventing harm. Although many healthcare professionals have a positive attitude towards patient safety, their knowledge of safety issues continues to be reported as deficient.…”