Abstract
Abstract
Background
Emergency Medical Services (EMS) is, by its nature, a challenging context that may create risks for both patients and employees. It is also known that an organisation’s safety culture has an influence on both patient and employee safety. Finnish EMS organisations lack knowledge of how their safety culture is perceived by their employees.
Aim
This study aims to test the psychometric properties of the Emergency Medical Services Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (EMS-SAQ) in a Finnish EMS setting. We also explore the connections between individual- and organisation-based characteristics and safety attitudes in the Finnish EMS.
Methods
A cross-sectional survey study design was used. The EMS-SAQ was used to collect data via social media. The instrument measures six domains of workplace safety culture: safety climate, teamwork climate, perceptions of management, job satisfaction, working conditions and stress recognition. The 5-point Likert scale was converted to a 100-point scale and mean ≥ 75 was dichotomized as a positive. Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was carried out to validate the EMS-SAQ in a Finnish setting. Other results were analysed by using non-parametric tests.
Results
327 responses were included in the analysis. CFA showed that the total EMS-SAQ model had acceptable goodness-of-fit values in the Finnish EMS setting. Total mean scores for each safety culture domain were identified non-positively (mean score < 75); safety climate 60.12, teamwork climate 60.92, perceptions of management 56.31, stress recognition 64.55, working conditions 53.43 and job satisfaction 70.36. Higher education was connected to lower job satisfaction and the teamwork climate within the individual characteristics. All organisation-based characteristics caused at least one significant variation in the safety culture domain scores. Working area significantly affected (p < 0.05) five out of the six safety culture domain scores.
Conclusions
The EMS-SAQ is a valid tool to evaluate safety culture among the Finnish EMS organisations; it offers a novel method to evaluate safety and patient safety within the Finnish EMS organisations. According to the findings, the organisation-based characteristics more likely had an impact on safety attitudes than did the individual-based characteristics. Therefore, it is suggested that the Finnish EMS organisations undertake safety culture development at the organisational level.
Funder
Finnish State Research Funding
Publisher
Springer Science and Business Media LLC
Subject
Critical Care and Intensive Care Medicine,Emergency Medicine
Reference51 articles.
1. Dov Z. Safety climate and beyond: a multi-level multi-climate framework. Saf Sci. 2008;46(3):376–87.
2. Oxford english dictionary. Oxford University Press, 2020 http://www.oed.com/viewdictionaryentry/Entry/11125. Accessed 4 Dec 2020
3. WHO World Alliance for Patient Safety, Geneva; 2010. Conceptual framework for the international classification for patient safety version 1.1: final technical report. https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/70882. Accessed: 4 Dec 2020
4. Flin R. Measuring safety culture in healthcare: a case for accurate diagnosis. Saf Sci. 2007;45(6):653–67.
5. Guldenmund FW. Understanding and exploring safety culture. Technical Univer- sity of Delft. Faculty of technology, policy and management. Safety science group. Doctoral thesis. Uitgeverij Boxpress, Oisterwijk. 2010.
Cited by
10 articles.
订阅此论文施引文献
订阅此论文施引文献,注册后可以免费订阅5篇论文的施引文献,订阅后可以查看论文全部施引文献