The Patient Safety Management Activities of Hospital Nurses: An Importance and Performance Analysis

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Nursing Practice
• Patient Safety

Background:

• Patient safety systems are vital for medical personnel to conduct nursing activities and identify areas for improvement.
• Patient safety nursing activities are systematic processes designed to prevent harm during medical care.

Purpose of the Study:

• To analyze the perceived importance of patient safety management activities by hospital nurses.
• To assess the actual performance levels of these patient safety management activities.

Main Methods:

• An importance-performance analysis was conducted on 163 experienced nurses in three South Korean hospitals.
• Data were gathered using questionnaires on nurse-implemented patient safety management activities (15 categories, 104 questions).

Main Results:

• Nurses rated the importance of patient safety activities highly (mean=3.65) and reported strong performance (mean=3.42).
• Key areas requiring focus included adequate staffing, employee training, violence prevention, organizational culture, rapid response systems, patient identification, and CPR protocols.

Conclusions:

• Patient safety management activities are generally well-performed in South Korean nursing settings.
• Creating supportive work environments is recommended for nursing managers to boost safety activity performance efficacy.