Purpose: Patient safety issues pose a great burden worldwide. However, there is still inadequate data on the burden of Patient Safety issues in the Philippines to specifically address institutional and national concerns through directed programs, policies, and interventions. This current study aims to describe the safety culture and attitudes of nurses of the National University Hospital in Manila, Philippines. Design: This study used a non-experimental design that assessed the safety culture and safety attitudes of nurses from the general units of the National University Hospital (NUH) using two assessment tools: the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (AHRQ-HSOPS) and the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire- Short Form (SAQ). Ethical approval was granted from both the university and the hospital ethics review boards. Methods: Stratified random sampling was used to ensure representation of staff nurses and nurse administrators. A self-administered survey that included the two tools was translated to Filipino and administered to 200 nurses. Percent of positive responses were obtained to describe the safety culture and attitudes as prescribed by toolkits of AHRQ-HSOPS and SAQ. Findings: The overall survey response rate yielded 86.77%. Nurses from the National University Hospital displayed both positive Safety Culture and Safety Attitudes based on AHRQ-HSOPS and SAQ. Dimensions that garnered the highest positive perceptions in Safety Culture were Organizational Learning and Teamwork while the lowest were Hospital Handoffs and Non-Punitive Response to Error. On the other hand, dimensions on Safety Awareness that received the highest positive perceptions were Teamwork and Safety Climate while the lowest was Stress Recognition. Perceptions of nurses also varied significantly across ranks in position titles and work settings. Conclusions There are identifiable dimensions that can be improved in both Safety Culture and Safety Attitude that can have a positive impact on nurses and potentially impact nurse-patient and hospital-sensitive outcomes through hospital-wide improvement programs.
Patient Safety ; Safety Management ; Nurses ; Working Conditions ; Job Satisfaction ; Philippines

BACKGROUND

Nursing, as a profession, is a facet where job satisfaction and performance matter. In the changing landscape of nursing practice in the Philippines and the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, it is imperative to revisit and to perform an empirical investigation of the current state of nurses' job satisfaction and performance in the hospital setting. This study aimed to describe the job satisfaction and performance among staff nurses in private and government hospitals in Baguio City.

DESIGN

Using a quantitative descriptive cross-sectional survey design, a sample of 313 randomly selected staff nurses working in two private and two government hospitals in Baguio City were surveyed from March to April 2023, using a questionnaire. This study's protocol was approved by two ethics committees, namely the Saint Louis University Research Ethics Committee and the BGHMC REC. Nominal data was analyzed using the SPSS trial version employing frequencies, percentages, and the Chi-square test.

FINDINGS

There are more staff nurses in both private and government hospitals who reported satisfactory job satisfaction levels (276 nurses, 87.9%) and had good job performance (303 nurses, 96.5%) in all domains. However, results show that there are more nurses (209 nurses, 90.7% ) in government hospitals who are satisfied with their jobs than in private hospital nurses (67 nurses, 80.1%) in the domains Intra practice Partnership/Collegiality (p=0.010); Challenge/Autonomy (p=0.001); Professional, Social and Community Interaction (p=0.010); Professional Growth (p=0.036); Time (p=0.009); and Benefits (p=0.045). In terms of job performance, more government nurses at 97.3% (224 nurses) rated a higher self-appraisal of job performance. In comparison, only 94.8% (79 nurses) of private staff nurses appraised themselves as having good performance. No significant differences were found in the domains of job performance, namely leadership, teaching, planning, communications, and professional development, except in critical care. In "Critical care," which showed significance, the results suggest that more nurses in government hospitals perceive higher job performance, revealing a significant difference (p=0.011) in the "critical care" domain, indicating that a higher proportion of nurses in government hospitals demonstrate superior performance in this area.

CONCLUSION

Through this study, it was learned that nurses in both private and government hospitals generally experience high job satisfaction and performance, reflecting a fulfilled workforce and indicating commendable competency among the staff nurses. However, more nurses in government hospitals report high satisfaction and perceived performance in critical care compared to those in private hospitals. Thus, the findings of this study can contribute to and serve as a rationale for policy making regarding creating a positive work environment, proper management and leadership, creation of training and skill development for critical care, providing opportunities for professional growth, and conducting regular evaluation and feedback----- all geared towards a satisfied and productive workforce.

Job Satisfaction ; Job Performance ; Work Performance ; Work Environment ; Working Conditions