Medication safety climate from the perspectives of healthcare providers: A cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND

Medication safety as an indicator of care quality is the measures taken by healthcare team members to prevent or adjust adverse drug events at the time of medication administration. This study was conducted to investigate the medication safety climate from healthcare providers' perspectives.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

This cross-sectional descriptive study was conducted in a selected educational hospital affiliated with the Isfahan University of Medical Sciences, Isfahan, Iran, in 2021. Participants were healthcare providers who are involved in the medication process. The sampling was done using the quota method. The study instruments were a demographic questionnaire and the Medication Safety Climate (MSC).

RESULTS

The total mean of positive responses to MSC items was 64.11%, denoting a moderate-level MSC. Collected data were managed using the SPSS software (v. 16.0) and were summarized using the measures of descriptive statistics, namely mean, standard deviation, frequency, and percentage. The lowest and the highest dimensional mean scores were related to the management support for medication safety dimension (mean: 48.42%) and the Teamwork dimension (mean: 80.43%), respectively.

CONCLUSION

Managers' inattention and insufficient understanding of safety provide the basis for medication errors and threaten patient safety. Healthcare team members are highly motivated to provide quality and safe care by observing the managers' positive performance regarding patient safety. To improve the medication safety climate, healthcare team members are required to work in a safe workplace and have sufficient job satisfaction. Health center managers need to employ a proactive approach to prevent errors.