Nurses' perceptions of systems thinking and safe nursing care: A cross-sectional study

Aim To assess nurses' perceptions of systems thinking, safe nursing care and the correlation between them. Background Systems thinking and safe nursing care are the key elements of quality improvement approaches, such as accreditation and patient safety programmes. However, these two variables have not been well studied in different health care settings. Methods In this cross-sectional study, 300 nurses were selected using the stratified random sampling method. The data were collected using a demographic data form, systems thinking scale and assessment of safe nursing care questionnaire. Results The scores of nurses' perceptions of systems thinking (63.25 +/- 9.20) and safe nursing care (4.13 +/- 0.60) were above average. A positive correlation was found between systems thinking and safe nursing care (r = .66, p < .001), and its dimensions: nursing skills (r = .61, p < .001), psychological needs (r = .56, p < .001), physical needs (r = .51, p < .001) and teamwork (r = .56, p < .001). Conclusion Regarding the correlation between systems thinking and safe nursing care, nurses and other medical professionals, especially novices, are recommended to strengthen their systems thinking skills to improve the safe nursing care. Implications for Nursing Management Nurse managers should deal with organisational condition and factors affecting some poor aspects of systems thinking and safe nursing care. They must lead, support and allocate resources to the foundations of systems thinking to achieve safe nursing care.