Impact of Collaborative Leadership, Workplace Social Capital, and Interprofessional Collaboration Practice on Patient Safety Climate.

Purpose: Patient safety climate is an important factor in promoting patient safety for healthcare organizations. This study investigated the relationship between collaborative leadership and patient safety climate, the mediation effect of workplace social capital, or interprofessional collaboration practice.

Methods: A web-based cross-sectional questionnaire survey was administered between May 2021 and May 2022, to employees of three acute care hospitals in Japan. The relationship between variables was verified by structural equation modeling.

Results: A total of 1,276 staff members participated in the study. Collaborative leadership affected the workplace social capital (β = .734) and interprofessional collaboration (β = .561), which were positively associated with patient safety climate (β = .403 and .405, respectively), verifying the mediating relationship of workplace social capital and interprofessional collaboration between collaborative leadership and patient safety climate.

Conclusions: Collaborative leadership enhances the reciprocity and interprofessional practices of the healthcare team. The interaction among interprofessional team members fosters a patient safety climate. The results of this survey suggest that the development of collaborative leadership, which encourages interprofessional collaboration and fosters workplace social capital, is inherently crucial for cultivating a patient safety climate.