Interaction of Safety Climate and Safety Culture: A Model for Cancer Treatment Centers

Abstract

Background: In health care institutions, safety culture is defined as the integrity of individual and group efforts to<br />reduce the harms for the patients. This is possible through interactions, attitudes, and understanding of safety matters.<br />On the other hand, one of the indicators of the safety culture is the safety climate. Objective: The aim of this study is<br />to investigate the interaction between safety climate and safety culture using structural equation modeling in personnel<br />of cancer treatment centers in Iran. Methods: In this study, 680 personnel of Iran's hospitals were chosen in a random<br />manner. Demographic (9 questions), safety culture (42 questions) and safety climate (37 questions) questionnaires were<br />filled. The data were inserted in SPSS 20 software. Descriptive statistics method and Pearson's correlation coefficient<br />were used to describe the data and evaluate the relation between the variables, respectively. Structural equations model<br />was developed using AMOS 22 software and fitness of the model was tested by χ2, RMSEA, GFI and NFI statistics.<br />Results: The scores of safety climate and safety culture were 3.61 and 3.30, respectively, which imply that they are<br />suiTable. The overall fitness of the model was accepTable. In this model, χ2 = 8637.17, df = 2964, χ2/df = 2.914,<br />RMSEA = 0.058, NFI = 0.912, GFI=0.907, and CFI=0.875. In the regression analysis, there were positive significant<br />relationships between safety climate and safety culture, safety climate and any of its components, and safety culture<br />and any of the components. Conclusion: It was found that the safety climate and the safety culture had a positive<br />impact on each other; so that with increasing safety climate, the safety culture also increases, and vice versa. Also, the<br />level of education has a positive impact on safety culture and safety climate. So appropriate training can promote both<br />variables in cancer treatment hospitals.