Investigation of the Relationship Between Perceived Leadership Behaviours of Nurses and Hospital Safety Culture: A...

Work environments that support patient safety initiatives are important for quality service and patient outcomes. The relationship between the leadership behaviours of nurse managers and safety culture, which has the potential to support these initiatives, constitutes one of the most important knowledge gaps.

The study aimed to determine the relationship between nurses' perceived leadership behaviours and hospital safety culture and the factors affecting them.

We tested the theoretical model using structural equation modelling with the AMOS 21 program.

The research was conducted with 134 nurses in two public hospitals in the south of Türkiye. Data were collected between October and December 2021 using the Leadership Behaviour Questionnaire and the Patient Safety Culture Hospital Questionnaire. Descriptive statistical analysis used to evaluate the data of the study. Structural equation modelling analysis and confirmatory factor analysis performed to test the research hypotheses.

The study found that non-punitive attitudes towards the mistakes had a full mediating effect on overall perception of safety interaction with employee-oriented leadership and high-level hospital interventions (β = -0.510, 95% CI -1.006/-0.076), and change had partly mediating effect on overall perception of safety interaction with change-oriented leadership (β = -0.510, 95% CI -1.043/-0.053).

It is clear that if nurse managers are to improve the staff's patient safety culture, they should develop change-oriented leadership skills by identifying adverse events and risks and motivating staff to learn from errors without taking punitive measures. In this context, healthcare organizations should evaluate the leadership qualities of managers. Managers at all levels can make plans to develop leadership behaviours that will play a facilitating role in improving patient safety.