Nurses' Perceptions of Patient Safety Culture and Voice Behaviors: A Descriptive and Correlational Study

Patient safety culture and nurses' voice behavior have critical importance in healthcare settings because they influence the quality of care. Therefore, it is important to determine nurses' voice behaviors regarding patient safety.

In this study, it was aimed to determine nurses' perceptions of patient safety culture and voice behavior, the relationship between these two variables, and predictors of voice behavior.

A descriptive and correlational study. The study was conducted using convenience sampling method between September 2022 and March 2023 with a total of 753 nurses in all units (except managers) of two public university hospitals in Türkiye (n = 753). The data were collected using the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture and the Employee Voice Scale. Multivariate analyses included hierarchical linear regression.

A moderate and positive significant correlation was found between the positive response total mean score of the patient safety culture and the total employee voice score. In addition, it was determined that the total patient safety culture score, feedback about errors and openness in communication from the patient safety culture sub-dimensions, shift work, and education status were the variables that significantly determined the voice behaviors of nurses.

The study empirically demonstrates that it is necessary to improve the perception of patient safety culture among nurses and hospital administrators, especially the perception of nonpunitive responses to errors, to increase nurses' voice behaviors.