A growing body of peer-reviewed studies demonstrates the importance of safety culture in healthcare safety improvement, but little attention has focused on developing a common set of definitions, dimensions and measures. The purpose of this literature review was to identify and summarize previous studies which define, assess, and explore improvement in safety culture as the concept applies to healthcare. Specific objectives include: summarizing definitions of safety culture and safety climate; identifying theories,
dimensions and measures of safety culture in healthcare; and reviewing progress in improving safety culture. One hundred and thirty-seven sources meeting the study inclusion requirements were included in this review. Results suggest that there is disagreement among researchers as to how safety culture should be defined, as well as whether or not safety culture is intrinsically diverse from the concept of safety climate. This variance extends into the dimensions and measurement of safety culture, and interventions to influence culture change in organizations. Most studies utilize quantitative surveys to measure safety culture, and propose improvements in safety by implementing multifaceted interventions targeting several dimensions. Moving forward, a common set of
definitions and dimensions will enable researchers to better share information and strategies to improve safety culture in healthcare, building momentum in this rapidly expanding field. Advancing the measurement of safety culture to include both quantitative and qualitative methods should be further explored. Download Link Disini !!!
