Table 2.

Pattern matrix of the final EFA solution (eight factors, 22 items)

Variable	Factor
	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8
(B1) My supervisor/manager says a good word when he/she sees a job done according to established patient safety procedures (SMEA)	0.822
(B2) My supervisor/manager seriously considers staff suggestions for improving patient safety (SMEA)	0.623
(E2) When a mistake is made, but has no potential to harm the patient, how often is this reported? (FER)		0.864
(E1) When a mistake is made, but is caught and corrected before affecting the patient, how often is this reported? (FER)		0.776
(E3) When a mistake is made that could harm the patient, but does not, how often is this reported? (FER)		0.776
(D5) Important patient care information is often lost during shift changes. (negatively worded) (HO)			−0.662
(D3) Things ’fall between the cracks' when transferring patients from one unit to another (negatively worded) (HO)			−0.621
(D6) It is often unpleasant to work with staff from other hospital units. (negatively worded) (TWAU)			−0.495
(D7) Problems often occur in the exchange of information across hospital units. (negatively worded) (HO)			−0.428
(A16) Staff worry that mistakes they make are kept in their personnel file. (negatively worded) (NRPE)				0.578
(A8) Staff feel like their mistakes are held (used) against them. (negatively worded) (NPRE)				0.559
(A12) When an incident is reported, it feels like the person is being reported, not the problem. (negatively worded) (NPRE)				0.531
(D4) There is good cooperation among hospital units that need to work together (TWAU)					−0.641
(D2) Hospital units do not coordinate well with each other (negatively worded) (TWAU)					−0.522
(A1) People support one another in this unit (TWWU)						0.688
(A3) When a lot of work needs to be done quickly, we work together as a team to get the work done (TWWU)						0.605
(A4) In this unit, people treat each other with respect (TWWU)						0.556
(C6) Staff are afraid to ask questions when something does not seem right. (negatively worded) (CO)							0.615
(C4) Staff feel free to question the decisions or actions of those with more authority (CO)							0.600
(C2) Staff will freely speak up if they see something that may negatively affect patient care (CO)							0.524
(D1) Hospital management provides a work climate that promotes patient safety (MS)								0.677
(D8) The actions of hospital management show that patient safety is a top priority (MS)								0.574

Rotation converged in 16 iterations.

Supervisor/manager expectations and actions promoting safety (SMEA), Non-punitive response to error (NPRE).

Extraction method: principal axis factoring. Rotation method: oblimin with Kaiser normalisation.

CO, communication openness; EFA, exploratory factor analysis; FER, frequency of incident reporting; HO, hospital handoffs and transitions; MS, hospital management support for patient safety; TWAU, teamwork across hospital units; TWWU, teamwork within hospital units.