Patient safety attitudes among respiratory therapists in Taiwan

Safety attitude surveys have been widely conducted in various disciplines, but not among respiratory therapists (RTs), to assess clinician's awareness of patient safety. We conducted a nationwide survey in Taiwan to assess RTs' safety attitudes in several hospital settings.

We adapted the Safety Attitude Questionnaire for RTs, and, via the RTs' union, invited all Taiwan RTs to take the survey. The questionnaire assessed safety attitudes in 6 domains: teamwork climate, safety climate, job satisfaction, stress recognition, perception of hospital management, and perception of working conditions. We analyzed the associations between positive attitudes and each domain.

The response rate was 60%. Overall, the RTs had low positive attitudes about the teamwork climate (37%), safety climate (21%), job satisfaction (29%), stress recognition (32%), perception of hospital management (24%), and perception of working conditions (21%). The positive attitudes to all safety domains were lower among senior RTs than among junior RTs. The RTs working in the medical centers had higher positive-attitude scores for stress recognition but lower scores for the other 5 safety domains than the RTs working in the (smaller) regional and district hospitals.

Taiwanese RTs had low positive attitudes about the surveyed 6 safety domains in their hospitals. High work load, management of RTs under other professions, and lack of protocol use probably contribute to their low opinions about the patient safety situation and low job satisfaction.