Attitudes Toward Patient Safety and Tendencies to Medical Error Among Turkish Cardiology and Cardiovascular Surgery Nurses

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BACKGROUND: Patient safety and medical errors are among the most discussed topics in recent years. Identifying and reporting medical errors is one of the most significant steps toward the adoption of measures to increase patient safety. OBJECTIVES: The goal of this descriptive, cross-sectional study was to evaluate attitudes toward patient safety and the tendencies to medical error among cardiology and cardiovascular surgery nurses in Turkey. METHODS: The study sample consisted of nurses who worked in the cardiology and cardiovascular surgery departments of a University Hospital in Izmir, the third largest city in Turkey. A total of 103 nurses working in the day shift of the mentioned departments volunteered and participated in the study. A "Nurse Information Form," a "Patient Safety Attitude Questionnaire (PSAQ)," and a "Malpractice Tendency Scale in Nursing-(MTSN)" were used as data collection instruments. RESULTS: The mean ± 1 standard deviation of the nurses' PSAQ scores were 141.86 ± 18.39, whereas their MTSN scores were 237.20 ± 18.12. Although no statistically significant difference could be evidenced between cardiology and cardiovascular surgery nurses in their total MTSN scores (t = -0.99, P = 0.32), their PSAQ scores showed a significant difference (t = 2.34, P = 0.02). CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that the tendencies to medical error among cardiology and cardiovascular surgery nurses working in a Turkish facility were low, whereas their attitudes toward patient safety were not at a particularly satisfactory level. The cardiology nurses were found to have a more positive attitude toward patient safety than their colleagues in cardiovascular surgery.