Patient safety culture: The impact on workplace violence and health worker burnout (December 2022)

Summary

This cross-sectional study, published in Workplace Health & Safety, used secondary survey data sent to approximately 7,100 health care workers at a large academic medical centre in the United States. Instruments included:

• the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture
• a WPV scale measuring physical and verbal violence perpetrated by patients or visitors
• the Emotional Exhaustion scale from the Maslach Burnout Inventory.

Findings suggest that improvements in hospital strategies aimed at patient safety culture, including team cohesion with handoffs and transitions, could positively influence a reduction in physical and verbal violence perpetrated by patients or visitors, and burnout among health care workers.