Assessing safety climate in acute hospital settings: a systematic review of the adequacy of the psychometric properties of survey measurement tools

Background: The perceived importance of safety culture in improving patient safety and its impact on patient outcomes has led to a growing interest in the assessment of safety climate in healthcare organizations; however, the rigour with which safety climate tools were developed and psychometrically tested was shown to be variable. This paper aims to identify and review questionnaire studies designed to measure safety climate in acute hospital settings, in order to assess the adequacy of reported psychometric properties of identified tools. Methods: A systematic review of published empirical literature was undertaken to examine sample characteristics and instrument details including safety climate dimensions, origin and theoretical basis, and extent of psychometric evaluation (content validity, criterion validity, construct validity and internal reliability). Results: Five questionnaire tools, designed for general evaluation of safety climate in acute hospital settings, were included. Detailed inspection revealed ambiguity around concepts of safety culture and climate, safety climate dimensions and the methodological rigour associated with the design of these measures. Standard reporting of the psychometric properties of developed questionnaires was variable, although evidence of an improving trend in the quality of the reported psychometric properties of studies was noted. Evidence of the theoretical underpinnings of climate tools was limited, while a lack of clarity in the relationship between safety culture and patient outcome measures still exists. Conclusions: Evidence of the adequacy of the psychometric development of safety climate questionnaire tools is still limited. Research is necessary to resolve the controversies in the definitions and dimensions of safety culture and climate in healthcare and identify related inconsistencies. More importance should be given to the appropriate validation of safety climate questionnaires before extending their usage in healthcare contexts different from those in which they were originally developed. Mixed methods research to understand why psychometric assessment and measurement reporting practices can be inadequate and lacking in a theoretical basis is also necessary

STUDYING OF SAFETY CLIMATE ASSESSMENT: A CASE STUDY AT STEEL INDUSTRY

Evolution of safety climate used as a practical means has determined and assessed potential problems relevant to safety issues in an organization and can be used in individuals’ performance and work efficiency and decreasing rate of incidents ;as well as; guidance to provide safety organization policy and comparison of safety performance in different organizations. The study wants to determine and prepare safety climate profile and application of its results in improving safety situation. In this study, applied tools presented by Loughborough University are used to evaluate safety climate in one of steel industries and data is collected through questionnaire, group discussions or purposeful interviews and observations, and safety climate score was obtained in 17 scopes. Calculating the score of each safety climate domain and preparing the profile indicated there is the average rate (4.89 2) in the safety climate of the industry.safety climate, safety evaluation,safety culture, steel industry, Iran

A questionnaire to measure safety climate, fatigue, stress, violations and errors

This document contains psychometric data for an instrument that was used to measure safety climate, fatigue, stress, violations and errors in an aviation maintenance setting [Fogarty, G. J. & Buikstra, E. (2008). A test of direct and indirect pathways linking safety climate, psychological health, and unsafe behaviours. International Journal of Applied Aviation Studies, 8 (2), 199-210]. The document also contains the items used to form the various scales

EXPLANATORY ANALYSIS OF THE SAFETY LEADERSHIP AND SAFETY CLIMATE AT POWER PLANT

The purpose of this study is to examine and explain the effect of a safety leadership on safety climate in coal fired power plant. The design of this study is a survey and the data collection is cross section through a questionnaire. The unit of analysis is the employee who have experience work with at least 1 year. Mechanical determination of sample units in this study is a simple random sampling. The method of data analysis in hypothesis testing that is the Smart PLS (Partial Least Square). The results of this study indicate that direct safety leadership gives significant effect on safety climate. The practical implications of this research is useful for the management of power plant as they need to increase the role of safety leadership in the effort of increasing the safety climate especially for its communication to employee about Environment Health Safety

Exploring safety climate factors in construction

This paper aims to explore and to make explicit of the existing safety climate assessment tools and dimensions. The concept of safety climate is firstly discussed with a review of different safety climate factors from the published literature. A qualitative research method was employed to explore the safety climate factors through a systematic review using four databases and specific keywords. A total of 68 papers were selected for the screening process. The screening process allowed to select the final 18 safety climate assessment tools and papers consisting of 98 safety climate factors spanning over a period of 39 years (1980-2019). Construction organisations may consider these factors to assess the current maturity level of their safety climate and to develop plans to achieve the required level. It is recommended that the factors discussed in this paper may be validated first before they are incorporated in the assessment of safety climate

Developing a Brief Version of a Work Safety Climate Measure for Practical Use in Organisations

This item is only available electronically.Safety climate, the shared perceptions of policies, practices and procedures for the protection of worker psychological health and safety within an organisation, is recognised as a leading indicator of safety incidents in workplaces. As such, an assessment of work safety climate can be used to identify safety issues and implement strategies to prevent such incidents. However, the ambiguity of the concept has meant that confusion remains over the definition and measurement of safety climate. The Nordic Safety Climate Questionnaire (NOSACQ-50) has previously been recognised as being useful for identifying issues with safety climate and subsequently implementing strategies for improved safety outcomes. A key issue with this questionnaire is its length; the 50 items can be too long for organisations to utilise. Briefer safety climate measures are needed for practical use if they are to provide a means of monitoring the safety climate on a regular basis. This review aims to outline safety climate, differentiating it from safety culture and identifying factors affecting safety climate and its measurement, including a discussion of brief safety climate measures and their benefits.Thesis (M.Psych(Organisational & Human Factors)) -- University of Adelaide, School of Psychology, 201

Introduction to customized occupational safety and health website and its effectiveness in improving psychosocial safety climate (PSC) among police officers

Introduction: The prevalence of stress among Malaysian police is high in which 38.8% polices have severe stress related to work resources and workplace environment. Psychosocial safety climate is one of the indicators that can be used to avoid psychosocial health problems. Objective: This study was conducted to determine the risk factors of psychosocial safety climate and to measure the effectiveness of a customised safety website in improving the safety climate. Methodology: This study involved 105 police officers who were randomly selected from nine different departments in PDRM Bukit Aman. A survey adapted from previous study was used to determine the psychosocial safety climate levels among respondents. Then, occupational safety website was introduced to the respondents and being used for two weeks. Lastly, post survey was done to see the difference of psychosocial safety climate before and after the use of the website. Results and Discussion: Findings showed that team psychological safety (r=0.381, p=<0.001) and physical safety climate (r=0.657, p=<0.001) were significantly associated with psychosocial safety climate level. The means before (36.095 ± 5.6202) and after (37.742 ± 4.7069) the introduction of occupational safety website was good. Still, there was a significant improvement of psychosocial safety climate level after the introduction of occupational safety website. Conclusion: This study showed that psychosocial safety climate level in an organization can be improved by introducing an informative website specific for police

Measuring the Safety Climate of Steel Mini-mill Workers using an Instrument Validated by Structural Equation Modeling

The research study entitled Measuring the Safety Climate of Steel Mini-Mill Workers using an Instrument Validated by Structural Equation Modeling created and field tested a new theory based safety climate instrument validated by structural equation modeling. The study also established an employee safety climate profile at three steel mini-mill locations in the United States. The safety culture of the employees and subcontractors at three locations was measured using the newly created Hall Safety Climate Instrument. The instrument was designed to measure safety climate of an organization where employees are required to practice a high level of safety skills and consistently high safety behavior because of the level of risk associated with certain work related operations. The Hall Safety Climate instrument measures safety climate and provides a point in time measure of safety culture. The Hall Safety Climate Instrument was developed using the theoretical framework of the theory of planned behavior. The theory of planned behavior uses three constructs to explain why individuals choose to perform a particular behavior. Reliability of the Hall Safety Climate instrument was established using Chronbach’s Alpha, exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis. The validity of the instrument was demonstrated by structural equation modeling using AMOS. Managers and Supervisors participating in the study self-reported a significantly higher safety climate than other participating employees. The individuals in the Maintenance departments of steel mini-mills self-reported a significantly higher safety climate than individuals in other mini-mill departments. Individuals self-reporting no previous work-related injuries achieved a higher safety climate score than those employees self-reporting previous work-related injuries. Despite having the same corporate mandated safety policies a significant difference in safety climate was found among the three corporate owned steel mini-mill locations in the United States participating in this study. The Hall Safety Climate Instrument was designed, piloted and field tested to be used to assess the employee safety climate at facilities requiring a high safety reliability environment. An industry is considered to need high safety reliability when the high risk environment of workers could mean the use of an unsafe practice could result in very serious consequences for an employee including death or severe injury

The 'climates' of the logging industry : effects on safety, commitment, turnover, and accidents : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (Soc. Sci.) in Psychology at Massey University

New Zealand's logging industry is one of the country's largest exporting industries. With increased global competition and demands, work environments like the logging industry are finding that problems such as accidents and turnover rates are intensifying. Much research has been completed on accident and turnover rates, yet no decrease is apparent. New approaches in identifying reasons for such problems are therefore necessary. Gaining knowledge of the rationale for high turnover and accident rates (adverse activities) within the logging industry included investigating the general PC, group and organisational climate, safety climate, organisational commitment and intentions to quit (job behaviours/perceptions)of logging industry members. Field and Abelson's (1982) model asserts that PC can affect job behaviours/perceptions and adverse activities. Their 'new evolution' model of climate also argues that aggregation of psychological climate (PC) perceptions to gain evidence of group and organisational climate is possible if there is consensus in PC perceptions within groups and across organisations. Respondents were a heterogeneous group of contractors (n=6) and crew members (n=67) drawn from a list of Corporate and Woodlot crews provided by Carter Holt Harvey Limited and Fletcher Challenge Limited. The relationships between demographic variables and PC were examined using analysis of variance (ANOVA). ANOVA's and Pearson r's correlations were also performed to analyse potential relationships between all the variables to determine effects on the adverse activities of the logging industry. The psychological climate, safety climate, organisational commitment, and intentions to turnover variables were found to be rather negative in direction. Aggregation of PC to group level climate proved unfruitful because of the lack of consensus within crews. However, organisational climate was evident across the logging industry. Some PC variables were found to be significantly related to safety climate variables, organisational commitment variables, and intention to quit variables. The contractors perceptions of the PC variables role ambiguity and workgroup friendliness and warmth were significantly related to crewmember turnover rates. Moreover, the contractors perceptions of the safety climate variable fatalism were significantly related to crewmember accident rates. The research limitations and implications were discussed along with recommendations for future research