Operating Room Nurses' Risks and Perceptions of Safety Climate

Overview

One of the leading elements in providing safe healthcare is to maintain employee health and safety. Hazards in the working environments of healthcare professionals threaten employee safety and cause errors in patient care. In this case, healthcare professionals working in a safe environment means that patients receive service in a safe environment. Safety climate is the perception of employees of the policies, procedures and practices that exist to ensure safety in the workplace and is an important element for the formation of a safety culture in the workplace. There are many factors that determine the perception of safety climate. These factors can be listed as the type and size of the organization, the occupational risks that employees are exposed to at work, the way occupational safety is managed, the gender, seniority of employees, and their position in the organization.

An organization's safety culture and team members' perceptions of the safety climate influence patient safety outcomes. Measuring the safety climate in healthcare workplaces is important to monitor the change of safety culture in the workplace over time. In units with a high safety climate, the patient safety climate is also hi. The extent to which employees believe in and embrace safety practices, policies and procedures is a reflection of the overall safety culture. A healthy climate plays an important role in increasing both the safety of employees and the safety of patients. According to AORN, the safety of the work environment equals patient safety. There are studies showing that the risks affecting operating room staff threaten patient safety . Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the safety environment in the operating room to improve patient safety. Evaluating the opinions and perceptions of operating room staff is important in identifying and managing risks in the operating room and creating a safety culture. Because intense dynamics, constantly changing situations and high stress levels can make it difficult to create and maintain a positive safety climate in operating rooms. Therefore, operating room managers and healthcare organizations need to pay attention to employees' risk perceptions and safety climate assessments. Although WHO emphasizes the importance of ensuring safety and safety culture in operating rooms, problems continue to occur in this regard. The purpose of this study is to determine the risks that operating room nurses encounter during their professional activities and to evaluate how these risks affect nurses' perceptions of safety climate.