Safety culture in the operating room: translation, validation of the safety attitudes questionnaire - operating room version

BMC Health Serv Res. 2023 May 16;23(1):491. doi: 10.1186/s12913-023-09539-9.

Abstract

Background: Measuring the safety culture in Healthcare is an important step in improving patient safety. One of the most commonly used instruments to measure the safety climate is the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ). The aim of the current study was to establish the validity and reliability of the Slovenian version of the SAQ for the operating room SAQ-OR.

Methods: The SAQ, consisting of six dimensions, was translated and adapted to the Slovenian context and applied in operating rooms from seven out of ten Slovenian regional hospitals. Cronbach's alpha and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was used to evaluate the reliability and validity of the instrument.

Results: The sample consisted of 243 health care professionals who hold positions in the OR, divided into 4 distinct professional classes, namely, 76 surgeons (31%), 15 anesthesiologists (6%), 140 nurses (58%) and 12 auxiliary persons (5%). It was observed a very good Cronbach's alpha (0.77 to 0.88). The CFA and its goodness-of-fit indices (CFI 0.912, TLI 0.900, RMSE 0.056, SRMR 0.056) showed an acceptable model fit. There are 28 items in the final model.

Conclusions: The Slovenian version of the SAQ-OR revealed good psychometric properties for studying the organisational safety culture.

Keywords: Operating room; Safety attitudes questionnare; Safety culture; Translation.

MeSH terms

  • Attitude of Health Personnel*
  • Humans
  • Operating Rooms*
  • Organizational Culture
  • Patient Safety
  • Psychometrics
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Safety Management
  • Surveys and Questionnaires