Knowledge, Attitudes and Practices of Nurses Regarding Client Safety at Maternal and Child Health Care Centers

Document Type : Original Article

Authors

1 Baccalaureate of Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, Tanta University, Egypt

2 Lecturer of Community Health Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, Tanta University, Egypt

3 Assistant Professor of Community Health Nursing, Faculty of Nursing, Tanta University Egypt

Abstract

Background: Patient safety is the cornerstone of high-quality health care. Nurses play a critical role in ensuring patient safety by monitoring patients, detecting errors, understanding care processes, and performing countless other tasks to ensure patients receive high-quality care. Aim of this study: Assess knowledge, attitudes and practices of nurses toward client safety at maternal and child health care centers (MCH). Subjects and methods: A Convenience sample of 120 nurses included in the study. Design: Descriptive study design. Setting: All seven MCH centers at Tanta city. Tools: Two tools were used, Tool (I) Structured interview schedule: which developed by the researcher and is consisted of three parts as follows , nurses socio demographic data, their knowledge toward patient safety and nurses attitudes by using Safety Attitude Questionnaire ambulatory version (SAQ‐AV) toward patient safety Tool (II) An observational checklist regarding Nurses' practices: This tool was done by using checklist that was developed and constructed by researcher based on related literature review and the nature of each clinic. Results: more than one third (40.8%) of studied nurses had good total knowledge score and the majority (89.2%) of them had a positive attitude. The majority (95.8% , 90.9%) of studied nurses' total practice levels were satisfactory in vaccination clinic and family planning clinic. There was a significant relation was found between socio demographic data and total knowledge and attitude scores of the studied nurses. Conclusion: the more knowledge health care professionals have about patient safety, the more positive their attitudes and the better their skills regarding patient safety Recommendations: It was recommended that all nurses working in primary health care settings should complete regular periodic in-services training programs to keep them up to date regarding patients' safety culture and safety practices.