Nurses' perceptions of systems thinking and safe nursing care: A cross-sectional study

Area of Science:

• Nursing Science
• Healthcare Quality Improvement
• Systems Thinking in Healthcare

Background:

• Systems thinking and safe nursing care are crucial for quality improvement initiatives like accreditation and patient safety programs.
• Limited research exists on these variables across diverse healthcare settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate nurses' perceptions of systems thinking.
• To assess nurses' perceptions of safe nursing care.
• To determine the correlation between systems thinking and safe nursing care among nurses.

Main Methods:

• A cross-sectional study involving 300 nurses selected via stratified random sampling.
• Data collection using a demographic form, systems thinking scale, and safe nursing care questionnaire.
• Statistical analysis to determine perceptions and correlations.

Main Results:

• Nurses' perceptions of both systems thinking (63.25 ± 9.20) and safe nursing care (4.13 ± 0.60) were above average.
• A significant positive correlation (r = .66, p < .001) was observed between systems thinking and safe nursing care.
• Positive correlations were also found with dimensions including nursing skills, psychological needs, physical needs, and teamwork.

Conclusions:

• Nurses and healthcare professionals, especially novices, should enhance systems thinking skills to improve safe nursing care.
• Nurse managers must address organizational factors influencing systems thinking and safe care, providing leadership and resources to foster these elements.