Objective To test the psychometric soundness of the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ) in Turkish hospitals, examine differences in perceptions of safety and provide baseline data.

Methods The SAQ (inpatient version) was translated with the back-translation technique into Turkish. Ten out of 50 teaching hospitals belonging to the Ministry of Health in Turkey were selected randomly. The Turkish version of the SAQ was administered to a sample of 2000 care givers at 10 hospitals. The factor structure of the responses was tested by confirmatory factor analysis. Cronbach alphas were calculated, and the mean and percentage positive safety attitude scores were assessed.

Results The response rate was 67.5%. Cronbach alphas of six factors (teamwork climate, safety climate, job satisfaction, stress recognition, perceptions of management, and working conditions) ranged from 0.66 to 0.77. Goodness-of-fit indices from the confirmatory factor analysis showed a reasonable model fit. There was a substantial variability among hospitals in terms of items and factors. Baseline data for the Turkish hospitals are presented.

Conclusion The Turkish translation of the SAQ showed satisfactory internal psychometric properties. Attitudes relevant to safety culture vary widely by hospital and indicate a need for improvement. Survey findings provide a baseline for future benchmarking.