Table 1

Correlation matrix of individual items and the patient safety grade

Patient safety grade (Spearman correlation coefficient)Reliability (Cronbach's α)
Staffing and resource adequacy (PES-NWI)0.78
 Adequate support services allow me to spend time with my patients0.27*
 Enough time and opportunity to discuss patient care problems with other nurses0.34*
 Enough registered nurses on staff to provide quality patient care0.43*
 Enough staff to get the work done0.41*
Collegial nurse–physician relations (PES-NWI)0.89
 Physicians and nurses have good working relationships0.27*
 Physicians value nurses’ observations and judgements0.20*
 Physicians recognise nurses’ contributions to patient care0.20*
 A lot of team work between nurses and physicians0.22*
 Physicians respect nurses as professionals0.24*
 Collaboration between nurses and physicians0.26*
 Physicians hold nurses in high esteem0.23*
Nurse manager ability, leadership and support of nurses (PES-NWI)0.76
 A supervisory staff that is supportive of nurses0.39*
 A nurse manager who is a good manager and leader0.30*
 Praise and recognition for a job well done0.29*
 A nurse manager who backs up the nursing staff in decision making, even if the conflict is with a physician0.27*
RNs’ level of involvement in direct patient care
 How would you describe your role in caring for most of the patients on your most recent shift?−0.04*
Patient safety culture (HSOPSC)
 Staff feel like their mistakes are held against them−0.32*
 Important patient care information is often lost during shift changes−0.39*
 Things ‘fall between the cracks’ when transferring patients from one unit to another−0.35*
 Staff feel free to question the decisions or actions of those in authority0.27*
 In this unit, we discuss ways to prevent errors from happening again0.36*
 We are given feedback about changes put into place based on event reports0.32*
 The actions of hospital management show that patient safety is a top priority0.44*

  • Reliability of PES-NWI subscales is included.

  • *p<0.0001.

  • HSOPSC, Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture; PES-NWI, Practice Environment Scale of the Nursing Work Index; RNs, registered nurses.