Relationship between nurses’ critical thinking disposition and patient safety incident reporting: The mediating role of patient safety culture in a comprehensive nursing service ward

by Nam-Yi Kim, Sung-Jung Kwak

At present, patient safety nursing by nurses is important and the risk of patient safety incidents is high. However, the comprehensive nursing service ward in Korea has no guardians. To prevent patient safety incidents and its recurrence, it is necessary to accurately report patient safety incidents. Patient safety incident reporting may be different depending on an individual’s critical thinking disposition and patient safety culture (organization, department, individual). This study was a descriptive survey and aimed to suggest ways to improve the reporting of patient safety incidents in Korea. The study participants were 130 nurses working in the comprehensive nursing service ward of a Korean university hospital. From October 5–18, 2023, we conducted a survey of nurses’ critical thinking dispositions, patient safety culture, and patient safety incident reporting. The mediating effect of patient safety culture on the relationship between critical thinking disposition and patient safety incident reporting was analyzed using PROCESS Macro Model 4. The results show that the patient safety incident report of nurses in the comprehensive nursing service ward was related to nurses’ critical thinking disposition and the nursing department’s patient safety culture. In particular, it was found that the department’s patient safety culture had a mediating effect (β = 0.11, 95% CI = 0.01~0.22) on the relationship between critical thinking disposition and patient safety incident reports. To encourage patient safety incident reports in nurses in the comprehensive nursing service ward, it is necessary to improve the organizational culture of the department (presenting free opinions or problems) and to develop strategies to promote critical thinking among nurses.