The effects of nursing work environment on patient safety in Saudi Arabian hospitals

PURPOSE: This study aims to investigate the impact of the nursing work environment on patients’ safety in Saudi Arabian hospitals. METHODS: This study used a cross-sectional design for collecting the data related to the nursing work environment and patients’ safety from nursing staff in Saudi Arabian hospitals. The survey questionnaire included in this study has two pre-validated questionnaires including practice environment scale-nursing work index questionnaire and hospital’s survey on patients’ safety developed by Surveys on Patients Safety Culture. The survey link was forwarded to HR administrators of 96 hospitals in Saudi Arabia, which included 72 public hospitals, 23 private hospitals, and one public-private hospital. Three hundred sixty-nine responses were received. After removing the incomplete responses, 357 responses were considered for the data analysis, in which t-tests and Pearson’s correlation techniques were adopted. RESULTS: Strongest correlations were identified between resource adequacy and work area (r = 0.763, p < 0.01), “participation in management and leadership” and work area (r = 0.712, p < 0.01), “participation in management and leadership” and supervisor/managers’ approaches (r = 0.731, p < 0.01), and “nursing care and inter-disciplinary relationships and frequency of events” (r = 0.701, p < 0.01). CONCLUSION: The nursing work environment factors, especially participation, management and leadership, nursing care, inter-disciplinary relationships, and resource adequacy have to be improved in order to improve the patients’ safety.