Health Professional Safety in the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Validation of a Measurement Instrument

Background: Discussing healthcare professional safety—not just patient safety—is crucial for delivering safe and high-quality healthcare, an essential component for achieving the third Sustainable Development Goal. The evaluation of the safety of healthcare professionals requires instruments that address multiple dimensions of their safety: organizational, emotional, professional and structural. The aim of this study was to validate the Questionnaire on Health Professional Safety in the COVID-19 Pandemic (QSP COVID-19). Methods: This is a methodological study to develop and validate the QSP COVID-19. Data were collected in a Brazilian municipality in 2022 and 2023. Exploratory factor analysis was carried out using the FACTOR software version 12.04.04. Results: A total of 259 professionals answered the QSP COVID-19. The factor analysis extracted four factors (organizational, emotional, professional and structural dimensions) which explained 55.4% of the total variance. The QSP COVID-19 has 30 items, all of which had factor loadings above 0.300. The latent and observed H-index of the four domains suggests that the factors may be replicable in future studies. Conclusions: the QSP COVID-19 has evidence of validity for assessing the safety of healthcare professionals in the context of COVID-19.