Interaction of Safety Climate and Safety Culture: A Model for Cancer Treatment Centers

BACKGROUND: In health care institutions, safety culture is defined as the integrity of individual and group efforts to reduce the harms for the patients. This is possible through interactions, attitudes, and understanding of safety matters. On the other hand, one of the indicators of the safety culture is the safety climate. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study is to investigate the interaction between safety climate and safety culture using structural equation modeling in personnel of cancer treatment centers in Iran. METHODS: In this study, 680 personnel of Iran’s hospitals were chosen in a random manner. Demographic (9 questions), safety culture (42 questions) and safety climate (37 questions) questionnaires were filled. The data were inserted in SPSS 20 software. Descriptive statistics method and Pearson’s correlation coefficient were used to describe the data and evaluate the relation between the variables, respectively. Structural equations model was developed using AMOS 22 software and fitness of the model was tested by χ((2)), RMSEA, GFI and NFI statistics. RESULTS: The scores of safety climate and safety culture were 3.61 and 3.30, respectively, which imply that they are suiTable. The overall fitness of the model was accepTable. In this model, χ((2)) = 8637.17, df = 2964, χ((2))/df = 2.914, RMSEA = 0.058, NFI = 0.912, GFI=0.907, and CFI=0.875. In the regression analysis, there were positive significant relationships between safety climate and safety culture, safety climate and any of its components, and safety culture and any of the components. CONCLUSION: It was found that the safety climate and the safety culture had a positive impact on each other; so that with increasing safety climate, the safety culture also increases, and vice versa. Also, the level of education has a positive impact on safety culture and safety climate. So appropriate training can promote both variables in cancer treatment hospitals.