ABSTRACT
Purpose@#This study examined the influence of nurses' communication competency, critical thinking disposition, and perception of patient safety culture on patient safety competency in armed forces hospitals. @*Methods@#A crosssectional design was employed with a convenience sample of 204 nurse officers from four armed forces hospitals in South Korea. Data were collected through a self-administered questionnaire from August 10~23, 2019, and analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, ANOVA, Pearson’s correlation coefficients, and multiple regression. All analyses were conducted using SPSS for Windows 21.0. @*Results@#Patient safety competency scores were 4.35±0.40 for patient safety attitudes, 3.63±0.64 for patient safety knowledge, and 3.94±0.51 for patient safety skill. Communication competency, critical thinking disposition, and perception of patient safety culture were positively correlated with patient safety competency. Communication competency (β=.30, p=.002) and perception of patient safety culture (β=.24, p=.001) were identified as particularly important factors influencing patient safety competency. @*Conclusion@#This study’s results suggest that education programs to enhance communication competency and patient safety culture could increase patient safety competency among nurses in armed forces hospitals.