Assessing the level of competence and attitude on patient safety among clinical nurses

Introduction: The dynamic healthcare landscape places a significant emphasis on providing safe, high-quality care, with patient safety being a cornerstone of professional nursing practice and requires healthcare professionals to master key concepts such as patient safety culture, effective communication, risk management and the identification and mitigation of adverse events. Nurses play a crucial role in detecting and preventing errors, highlighting the need to assess their competence and attitudes towards patient safety to improve outcomes and promote a culture of continuous improvement. Objective: The objective of the study is to assess the level of competence and attitude towards patient safety among clinical nurses and to find its association with selected demographic variables. Methodology: Quantitative research approach with a cross-sectional descriptive design was used and 100 clinical nurses were selected using purposive sampling technique. Results: 100 (100%) clinical nurses had adequate competence and 60 (60%) had positive attitude towards patient safety, 39 (39%) had moderately favourable attitude and 1 (1%) had negative attitude towards patient safety. The study found a mean competence score of 17.42 ± 1.73 and a mean attitude score of 82.21 ± 17.26 among clinical nurses. A positive correlation was found between competence and attitude scores toward patient safety among clinical nurses (r = 0.316), which was statistically significant ( P < 0.001). The demographic variable working unit (χ² = 11.483, P = 0.043) showed a statistically significant association with the level of competence toward patient safety among clinical nurses at the P < 0.05 level. Similarly, the demographic variable previous training courses related to patient safety (χ² = 7.590, P = 0.022) showed a statistically significant association with the level of attitude toward patient safety among clinical nurses at the P < 0.05 level. Conclusion: The study suggested that continuous education, organisational support and fostering a safety-oriented culture are critical to improving patient safety outcomes.