The Relationship between Patient Safety Culture and Barriers to Medical Errors Reporting Among Nurses in Tehran Hospitals

Background & Objectives: According to World Health Organization, patient safety is a serious public health issue, an important aspect of the quality of health care, and a vital prerequisite for universal health coverage. The objective of this study was to investigate nurses' perceptions of patient safety culture (PSC), barriers to medical error reporting, as well as the relationship between the two. Methods: This descriptive-analytical study was conducted in six public hospitals in Tehran on 420 nurses who were selected using multistage sampling. The Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSOPSC) and a researcher-made questionnaire on barriers to medical error reporting were utilized. Data were analyzed using correlation tests, t-test, analysis of variance (ANOVA), and multivariate regression analysis using SPSS software (version 20). Results: The mean score of patient safety culture was 52.01 and the mean score of barriers to error reporting was 3.13. Manager expectations and actions had the highest mean score (69.8) and non-punitive response to errors had the lowest mean score (23.6) among the dimensions of patient safety culture. Fear of the consequences of reporting an error was the most important perceived barrier to error reporting (3.37). There was a significant negative correlation between safety culture and perceived barriers to error reporting (P<0.001). Conclusion: Setting up an anonymous reporting system as well as increasing managers' support for error reporting and providing positive feedback to nurses are essential steps to improve error reporting. Key¬words: Patient Safety Culture, Error Reporting, Medical Error, Teaching Hospital Citation: Daneshkohan A, Mahfoozpour S, Palesh M, Fazli Ouchhesar B, Fazali Ouchhesar F. The Relationship between Patient Safety Culture and Barriers to Medical Errors Reporting Among Nurses in Tehran Hospitals. Journal of Health Based Research 2020; 5(4): 435-50. [In Persian