Development and Validation of the Korean Patient Safety Culture Scale for Nursing Homes

ABSTRACT

PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to develop a tool to evaluate patient safety culture in nursing homes and to test its validity and reliability. METHODS: A preliminary tool was developed through interviews with focus group, content validity tests, and a pilot study. A nationwide survey was conducted from February to April, 2011, using self-report questionnaires. Participants were 982 employees in nursing homes. Data were analyzed using Cronbach's alpha, item analysis, factor analysis, and multitrait/multi-Item analysis. RESULTS: From the results of the analysis, 27 final items were selected from 49 items on the preliminary tool. Items with low correlation with total scale were excluded. The 4 factors sorted by factor analysis contributed 63.4% of the variance in the total scale. The factors were labeled as leadership, organizational system, working attitude, management practice. Cronbach's alpha for internal consistency was .95 and the range for the 4 factors was from .86 to .93. CONCLUSION: The results of this study indicate that the Korean Patient Safety Culture Scale has reliability and validity and is suitable for evaluation of patient safety culture in Korean nursing homes.