A Study on Patient Safety Accidents Experienced by Nurses in Long-Term Care Hospitals, Patient Safety Culture, and Safety Nursing Activities

This study aimed to analyze patient safety accidents experienced by nurses in long-term care hospitals, and to understand the relationships between these accidents, patient safety culture, and safety nursing activities. A survey was conducted from November 1 to November 30, 2023, involving 234 nurses who had been engaged in nursing duties for more than 6 months at five different long-term care hospitals. The collected data were analyzed using SPSS 29.0 software, employing the chi-square, the t-test, ANOVA, and the Pearson correlation test. The results revealed that 73.5% of participants had experienced a patient safety accident in the past year, with 3.5% of these accidents remaining unreported. The most frequently encountered accident was falls, predominantly occurring in inpatient wards. The accident stage most commonly identified was near misses, and the most common post-accident response was intensive monitoring. Nurses with more experience in terms of age, nursing career, and tenure in long-term care facilities, as well as those involved in accreditation evaluations, reported a higher incidence of patient safety accidents. Nurses with access to patient safety guidelines had higher scores for patient safety culture and safety nursing activities, and those who completed patient safety training had higher scores for patient safety culture. However, no significant relationship was found between the experience of patient safety accidents and both patient safety culture and safety nursing activities. Based on these findings, it is recommended to implement differentiated patient safety training according to nursing experience and to utilize guidelines based on patient safety regulations.