The Effects of Safety Climate on Psychosocial Factors: An Empirical Study in Healthcare Workplaces

Abstract

How to develop a better patient safety culture has been an important goal for healthcare organizations, but the effects of safety culture on psychosocial factors, such as emotional exhaustion and stress, have not been fully addressed. This study aimed to reconfigure important dimensions affecting safety culture and examine the associations between safety culture and psychosocial factors (emotional exhaustion and work-life balance). The partial least squaring technique was used to analyze the data, showing that job satisfaction (β = 0.320, P < 0.001), working conditions (β = 0.307, P < 0.001), and perception of management (β = 0.282, P < 0.001) positively affected the safety climate. The safety climate and work-life balance could reduce the occurrence of emotional exhaustion, whereas a high-stress environment would cause a higher level of emotional exhaustion. Given these findings, hospitals should endeavor to help employees feel safe and not threatened, reduce stress, and advise them to maintain a good work-life balance.

Evaluation of the Effect of Compassion Fatigue on Medical Error Tendency in Intensive Care Nurses

“…As a patient safety outcome, nurses are directly accountable for malpractices in the care setting (Alharbi et al, 2020). Compassion fatigue in shift nurses increases job stress and leads to burnout, thereby reducing their ability to concentrate on their work and potentially increasing the number of patient safety incidents (Ryu & Shim, 2021;Wang et al, 2022).…”