Exploring the barriers to patient engagement in the delivery of safe care in Iranian hospitals: A qualitative study

AIM: To investigate barriers to patient engagement in the delivery of safe hospital care. DESIGN: Qualitative exploratory study. METHODS: A qualitative study with 35 Iranian health professionals was conducted from February to April 2019 using semi‐structured interviews to elicit their opinions. MAXQDA 11 software was used for data management, and the data were analysed using framework analysis. RESULTS: Barriers, which potentially have negative impact on patient engagement in the delivery of safer care, were categorized into four themes. The first category included patient‐related barriers such as low levels of health literacy, ineffective education, patient unwillingness and cultural barriers. The second category included staff‐related barriers such as the existence of negative attitudes towards engaging patients in matters relating to patient safety, ineffective communication, high workload and the reluctance on the part of physicians to engage with patients. Barriers created by limited resources and inadequate training provided by universities and in the workplace formed the third category and community‐related barriers such as the inadequate dissemination of information via the mass media and a lack of community‐based services formed the fourth category. CONCLUSION: Results demonstrate the multilayered nature of the significant barriers to the engagement of patients in the delivery of safe care and reflect the need for a collaborative approach between the recipients of care, researchers, care providers and policy makers if these are to be overcome.