Nursing Students’ Perception of Patient Safety Culture During the Covid-19 Pandemic – Results of a Pilot Study

Abstract

Introduction: The COVID-19 pandemic posed health and social threats and directly affected the quality and safe care. Many nursing students had mandatory practical training in hospitals to help the national system respond to the crisis. The investigation of nursing students’ perceptions of patient safety culture (PSC) might be beneficial in identifying safety areas that need improvement. Aim: The pilot study aimed to investigate nursing students’ perception of PSC during the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: The data were collected using the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture - Nursing Students (HSOPS-NS). The HSOPS-NS tool was distributed online via the Google Forms platform between February and April 2021. The respondents studied in the 3rd year of the bachelor’s degree in nursing (n = 66). Three nursing faculties from 3 regions in Slovakia were addressed. Descriptive statistics (mean, SD, frequency) was used for the sample characteristics and the HSOPS-NS tool. The Mann-Whitney U test and the Kruskal Wallis test analysed associations between sociodemographic data. The predictors of outcome dimensions of the HSOPS-NS were analysed by a multiple regression analysis. Results: The nursing students evaluated the overall patient safety grade as very acceptable. Concerning PSC dimensions, the best-rated dimensions were “Feedback & communication about the error” (55.04%) and “Communication openness” (53.53%). The worst-rated dimensions were “Frequency of events reported” (33.32%) and “Staffing” (35.22%). A significant relationship was found between the perception of PSC and age, current area/unit, awareness of reporting systems, and supervision. The overall patient safety grade, the number of reported events, the number of reported events by nursing students were significantly predicted by several PSC dimensions (p ≤ 0.05). Conclusions: The nursing students’ perspective on PSC revealed a weak perception of reporting adverse events. The awareness of reporting adverse events requires an increase in theoretical knowledge and the support of nursing students during their clinical training. A regular and comprehensive evaluation of PSC may strengthen patient safety and the overall awareness of patient safety among nursing students.

Patient safety culture during Covid-19 pandemic as perceived by nursing students on their clinical placements

“…Its importance in patient safety competencies has also been emphasized by Wulandi (2020); nevertheless, clinical practice under a mentor / supervisor is rare in the Czech Republic. Similar results were achieved in Slovakia, where the evaluation of PSC during the pandemic was influenced mainly by the form of study, experience in providing nursing care, age, knowledge of any systems for adverse events reporting, the current workplace, and clinical supervision (Kalánková et al, 2022). The final aim of our paper was to examine predictors (overall level of patient safety and numbers of adverse events reported).…”

“…In the Czech Republic, the worst rated dimensions were Frequency of events reported (30.53%) and Staffing (38.1%) and the best were Communication openness (70.4%) and Teamwork within units (69.43%). In Slovakia, nursing students also awarded the worst scores for Frequency of events reported (33%) and Staffing (35%), while the best scores were given for Feedback & communication about error (55%) and Communication openness (53%) (Kalánková et al, 2022). In terms of factors that influence the evaluation of dimensions, previous studies before the pandemic have indicated that patient safety knowledge tends to increase over the years (Alquwez et al, 2019).…”

“…Its importance has also been demonstrated in pre-pandemic studies among nurses (Ammouri et al, 2015;Sováriová Soósová et al, 2017) but also during the pandemic in Slovakia. The authors demonstrated that a better evaluation of the patient safety grade contributes to the dimensions of support for patient safety management and general perceptions of patient safety (Kalánková et al, 2022). Therefore, it is very important to teach and develop PSC in nursing studies, while the overall level of patient safety can be further improved through the dimensions evaluated in the future.…”

Nursing students’ perspectives on patients' safety competencies: a cross-sectional survey

“…Another pilot study reported that the overall patient safety grade, the number of reported events, and the number of reported events by nursing students were significantly predicted by several patient safety competence dimensions ( p ≤ 0.05) [ 30 ].…”