Authors: Garcia Gargallo PRN, Rogozhina VRN, Calvo Doñate ERN, Sobrino Cayuela ARN, Company Pont R, Vallejo Bautista, García García.
Introduction: Healthcare has brought undeniable benefits, but each interaction with the health system can lead to inconveniences. The Intensive Care Unit (ICU) work environment is highly technical; security concerns may be especially relevant in this location. A fundamental issue of the development of safety tasks in health institutions is the assessment of the patient safety climate.
Objective: To assess the security climate perceived by the workers of our unit in 2014 and 2021 to articulate continuous improvement measures to improve the areas with poor evaluation.
Results: In 2021, employees worked in the ICU for less time (5.48 +/- 6.7 vs. 12.09 +/- 7.52 vs. years), and their safety perception score was somewhat better (8.06 + / - 1.16 vs. 7.69 +/- 1.43) than in 2014. Almost no worker declared any adverse event. The scores of the 12 dimensions were generally similar in the two periods, with a significant decrease in the positive responses of the dimension “Nonpunitive response to error” and a significant increase in “Teamwork within units” in the 2021 survey compared to 2014. In both surveys, the dimensions “Staffing” and “Management support for patient safety” account for more than 40% of the negative responses, so the efforts to improve the security climate must be directed in these two dimensions. The incorporation of a high percentage of young personnel and the slow consolidation of the safety culture values may explain these results.
Conclusions: The declaration of adverse events in the ICU is very scarce. The perception of teamwork within the ICU is very good. Quality improvement actions should target “Staffing” and “Management support for patient security”.
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