Dimensions of Safety Climate among Iranian Nurses

BACKGROUND: Workplace safety has been a concern of workers and managers for decades. Measuring safety climate is crucial in improving safety performance. It is also a method of benchmarking safety perception. OBJECTIVE: To develop and validate a psychometrics scale for measuring nurses' safety climate. METHODS: Literature review, subject matter experts and nurse's judgment were used in items developing. Content validity and reliability for new tool were tested by content validity index (CVI) and test-retest analysis, respectively. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) with varimax rotation was used to improve the interpretation of latent factors. RESULTS: A 40-item scale in 6 factors was developed, which could explain 55% of the observed variance. The 6 factors included employees' involvement in safety and management support, compliance with safety rules, safety training and accessibility to personal protective equipment, hindrance to safe work, safety communication and job pressure, and individual risk perception. CONCLUSION: The proposed scale can be used in identifying the needed areas to implement interventions in safety climate of nurses.