Attitudes Toward Safety and Teamwork: Benchmarking Australian Surgeons and Nurses.

OBJECTIVES

This study aimed to investigate the safety attitudes of surgeons and nurses working in Australian operating rooms and establish a baseline of their general safety attitudes, as well as to compare the safety attitudes of surgeons and nurses working in operating room settings.

METHODS

A modified version of the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (Operating Room version) was distributed to operating room personnel across Australia via their relative colleges and unions. A total of 261 surgeons and registered nurses completed the online survey.

RESULTS

An above-average safety focus was reported, with participants tending to be more positive on all subscales of the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (Operating Room version) than reported by previous studies, which measured those working in intensive care units, ambulatory settings, and operating rooms. Participants had the most positive attitudes toward Teamwork Climate and Job Satisfaction, and the least positive attitudes toward Perceptions of Management and Work Conditions. There were some occupational differences in attitudes toward the various aspects of safety, with surgeons having more positive attitudes toward all aspects of safety except in relation to stress recognition, compared with nurses.

CONCLUSIONS

This study provides a baseline of general safety attitudes for Australian surgeons and nurses against which the effectiveness of future interventions can be interpreted. The occupational differences found in this study support the notion that safety interventions should be occupationally tailored. Interventions should target individual professional groups, taking into account the specific differences within each occupation to maximize their impact and effectiveness.