Validation of the research tool and measurement of pediatric patient safety in a hospital using the BePoZa questionnaire

Background. Patient safety can be assessed using a diagnostic survey. It is analyzed in the context of safety culture and safety climate. ‘Safety climate‘ is a term narrower than ‘safety culture‘. The safety climate is a component of a broader conceptual construct – safety culture. The safety climate is, in essence, the attitude of the medical staff to the patient safety at their workplace. Objectives. Psychometric evaluation of the BePoZa tool and pediatric patient safety measurement. Material and methods. The study was conducted in a multisite children’s hospital in Warsaw. The hospital has a total capacity of 500 beds. Paper version of BePoZa survey was personally distributed among the nursing/midwifery staff between March 2017 and August 2017. The BePoZa questionnaire is the Polish version of the English-language Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ) developed at The University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth), USA. Results. The Cronbach's α coefficient is 0.87 for the overall questionnaire (0.87) and for the respective dimensions: 0.83 (Teamwork Climate) and 0.77 (Safety Climate). The overall result of the BePoZa questionnaire in the examined hospital is: Me = 101; M = 100 (max. 135). Conclusions. In conclusion, the assessed tool is characterized by a high degree of reliability and there is no need to modify it. The safety of the pediatric patient in the hospital was highly evaluated by the nursing staff. However, the quality of interpersonal relations with the doctors needs to be improved and the number of nursing staff should be increased.