Pharmacist assessment of patient safety culture in a Nigeria’s healthcare hub

Objectives The main objective of this study was to determine the perspective of the pharmacy staff on patient safety culture and to identify areas of strength and weakness in safety culture. Materials and Methods The study was a cross-sectional survey conducted among pharmacy staff who were directly involved with the provision of pharmaceutical services to patients in a tertiary healthcare facility in South-West, Nigeria. Data were collected using the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality Questionnaire. A purposive sampling technique was used to randomly administer the questionnaire to 82 pharmacy personnel who had direct professional interactions with patients. Analysis of data was done using the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences version 25. Results More than 80% of respondents were professionals (pharmacists/Internees) who were directly involved in providing pharmaceutical services in the department; 50% of respondents had worked in the pharmacy department from 1 year to <12 years and 56.1% worked more than 40 h per week. Overall, positive responses were satisfactory for teamwork (66.7%), overall perception of patient safety (61.0%), patient counseling (81%), and organizational learning (56.1%) but poor for staffing, work pressure and pace (26.8%), and communication about prescription across shifts (40.7%). Patient safety in this pharmacy received an overall rating of 62.2%. Conclusion There is a need for urgent attention of the management of the hospital to be drawn toward the need for re-evaluation of current safety culture composites and amend systems where necessary to reduce risks and improve pharmacy patient safety.