Issues and complexities in safety culture assessment in healthcare

The concept of safety culture in healthcare-a culture that enables staff and patients to be free from harm-is characterized by complexity, multifacetedness, and indefinability. Over the years, disparate and unclear definitions have resulted in a proliferation of measurement tools, with lack of consensus on how safety culture can be best measured and improved. A growing challenge is also achieving sufficient response rates, due to survey fatigue, with the need for survey optimisation never being more acute. In this paper, we discuss key challenges and complexities in safety culture assessment relating to definition, tools, dimensionality and response rates. The aim is to prompt critical reflection on these issues and point to possible solutions and areas for future research.

Automated summary

The concept of safety culture in healthcare, which aims to create a culture that ensures the safety of staff and patients, is complex, multifaceted, and difficult to define. This has led to various definitions and measurement tools, with no consensus on the best way to measure and improve safety culture. Another challenge is achieving sufficient response rates in surveys due to survey fatigue. This paper discusses the challenges and complexities in safety culture assessment, including definition, tools, dimensionality, and response rates, and highlights possible solutions and areas for future research.