Knowledge and attitude of nurses towards patient safety and its associated factors

Abstract

Background: A higher number of patients experience harm during hospitalization as a result of a range of errors and adverse events. The level of knowledge and attitude of nurses towards patient safety has a great impact on provision of safe patient care. Despite this, the issue had not been sufficiently addressed in Ethiopia particularly in the current study setting. This study aims to assess knowledge, attitude and associated factors towards patient safety among nurses working at University of Gondar specialized hospital. Method: Institution based cross-sectional study design was conducted in University of Gondar specialized hospital. Data was collected from 386 nurses using a pre-tested, structured and self-administered English version questionnaire. EPI data 3.1 was used for data enter and SPSS version 22 for analysis. A binary logistic regression model was utilized to identify factors associated with knowledge and attitude of nurses towards patient safety. An adjusted odds ratio with 95% confidence interval was computed to determine the level of significance. Result: Accordingly, the result of this study showed that 48.4% of the respondents were found to have good knowledge. Similarly, 56.1% of the respondents had a favorable attitude regarding patient safety. Training (AOR = 2.9, 95% CI = 1.34, 6.3), age (AOR = 3.3, 95%CI = 1.79, 6.0) and information about patient safety during continuing education (AOR = 3.07, 95% CI = 1.6, 5.45) showed a positive and significant association with both knowledge and attitude of nurses. Conclusion: nearly 52% of nurses in Ethiopia had poor knowledge about patient safety and a relatively good attitude. Therefore, it is suggested that nurses strengthen their educational status and their awareness towards patent safety. It is also proposed that higher officials need to facilitate patient safety training.

Keywords

• Attitude
• Knowledge
• Nurse
• Patient safety