Assessment of patient safety culture in benghazi children's hospital from the viewpoint of nursing staff

Background: patient safety is a critical component of health-care quality, and it is considered as an important issue worldwide. This study aimed to assess patient safety culture (PSC) among nurses and to investigate the areas of deficiencies for improvement. Methods: A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted on nurses working at Benghazi Children's Hospital. A self-administered questionnaire containing 12 dimensions was used to assess the Hospital Survey on PSC including patient safety grade and number of events reported. Results: Only 87 of the total 118 distributed questionnaires were returned, giving a response rate of 73.7%. The overall positive response rate of PSC was 47%. The dimension with the highest positive score and considered areas of strength were teamwork within units (72%). The dimension with the lowest percentage of positive response rate was nonpunitive response to error (30%). Conclusion: Improving PSC should be a priority among hospital administrators. Staff should be encouraged to report errors spontaneously and without any fear.