Table 2.
Variables assessed by the 37-item paper-pencil questionnaire
| Variable | Description | Example items | Measurement |
|---|---|---|---|
| HPWS | Ten-item HPWS questionnaire [5] assessing HPWS practices within a given unit. | See Table 1 | 5-point Likert scale: ‘disagree strongly’ - ‘agree strongly’ (with ‘neutral’); Cronbach’s α = .92 [5] |
| Teamwork climate (TC) | Six-item subscale from the SAQ [27] (original (English) version [28]) assessing the perceived quality of teamwork and collaboration within a given unit [28]. | ‘The physicians and nurses here work together as a well-coordinated team.’ | 5-point Likert scale ‘disagree strongly’ - ‘agree strongly’ (with ‘neutral’); Cronbach’s α = .436–.791 [27] |
| Safety climate (SC) | Seven-item subscale from the SAQ [27] (original (English) version [28]) assessing perception of how strong and proactive a given unit’s organizational commitment to safety is [28]. | ‘The culture in this clinical area makes it easy to learn from the errors of others.’ | See above |
| Organisational learning (OL) | Three-item subscale from the HSOPSC [18] (original (English) version [29]) assesses whether mistakes have led to positive changes and changes are evaluated for their effectiveness [30]. | ‘We are actively doing things to improve patient safety.’ | 5-point Likert scale ‘strongly disagree’ - ‘strongly agree’ (with ‘neither agree or disagree’); one item ranged from ‘never’ to ‘more than once a month’; Cronbach’s α = .61–.88 [18] |
| Critical incident reporting system (CIRS) | Three self-developed items assessing the use of CIRSs. | ‘I use the CIRS reporting system for the analysis of patient-related events/(near-misses) errors.’ | 5-point Likert scale ‘strongly disagree’ - ‘strongly agree’ (with ‘neither agree or disagree’) |
| Patient safety grade (PS) | One self-developed item assesses the overall grade of patient safety within a given unit. | ‘What is the overall grade of patient safety in your clinical area?’ | 10-point visual analogue scale ‘very unsafe’ - ‘very safe’ |
| Demographic data | Seven items assessing each participant’s socio-demographic profile | ‘Do you have a management function?’ | Dichotomous answer format |