Safety perception in the operating environment: The nurses' perspective versus that of the surgeons

Adverse effects due to surgery occur in 25% of patients, and the patient safety perception seems to differ between nurses and surgeons in the operating room (OR). This difference can be attributed to lack of communication. However, our hospital has not conducted any studies on patient safety climate (PSC) in the OR.

To determine if the perception of PSC of nurses and surgeons in the OR diverges and understand whether these differences could be explained by communication gap.

A total of 42 perioperative nurses and 44 surgeons in the OR of a tertiary hospital answered the Spanish version of the US Hospital Survey on PSC. This was an observational, cross-sectional study with descriptive statistics and a non-parametric test.

Nurses had a worse perception of the dimensions of overall safety, leader expectations, teamwork within units, feedback, staffing, and hospital management (p < .05). Although no differences were found concerning organizational learning/continuous improvement, communication openness, nonpunitive responses, and teamwork across hospital unit dimensions, the findings suggest that the nurses' perception was worse than that of the surgeons.

In general, OR nurses have worse PSC than surgeons, mainly in the areas where communication it's important. Our study has provided the data that will enable the hospital management team to make decisions to improve the PSC in the operating room area. We recommend a more active presence of nurses in directive teams.