ATTITUDES OF HEALTH CAREGIVERS ON TEAMWORK AND SAFETY CLIMATE IN AN EDUCATIONAL MEDICAL CENTER

Objective: To study the attitudes of health caregivers on teamwork & safety climate in an educational Medical Center in Tehran Iran. Methodology: In this descriptive study, 225 residents physician, nurses and other paramedics working for at least one month in the studied hospital participated. Data collection tool was Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ) which consisted of three sections: provider group characteristics, 14 teamwork questions, and 13 safety climate questions. Validity (content) and reliability (test-retest) of the questionnaire were confirmed and chi square test was used for data analysis. Results: The results indicated that from 225 subjects, 39.11% were male and 60.89% were female, with 70.23% being married and 26.66% being single. There was not a significant relationship between caregivers’ attitudes on teamwork & safety climate with provider group characteristics (gender, experience in organization, marital status, and organizational position). By comparing teamwork & safety climate points, the status of teamwork in the studied hospital was better than that of safety climate and the caregivers were more satisfied with status of teamwork in the hospital. Conclusion: Achievement of patient safety depends on teamwork. Safety climate also leads to an appropriate feedback and culture of learning from errors. Therefore, further studies on safety climate related factors, for continuous improvement in patient safety is recommended.