Dataset Information

Assessing the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ), German language version in Swiss university hospitals--a validation study.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Improving patient safety has become a major focus of clinical care and research over the past two decades. An institution's patient safety climate represents an essential component of ensuring a safe environment and thereby can be vital to the prevention of adverse events. Covering six patient safety related factors, the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ) is a validated and widely used instrument to measure the patient safety climate in clinical areas. The objective of this study was to assess the psychometric properties of the German language version of the SAQ.

Methods

A survey was carried out in two University Hospitals in Switzerland in autumn 2009 where the SAQ was distributed to a sample of 406 nurses and physicians in medical and surgical wards. Following the American Educational Research Association guidelines, we tested the questionnaire validity by levels of evidence: content validity, internal structure and relations to other variables. Confirmatory factor analysis was used to examine factor structure. Cronbach's alphas and inter-item correlations were calculated to examine internal consistency reliability.

Results

A total of 319 questionnaires were completed representing an overall response rate of 78.6%. For three items, the item content validity index was <0.75. Confirmatory factor analysis showed acceptable model fit (RMSEA = 0.045; CFI = 0.944) for the six-factor model. Additional exploratory factor analysis could not identify a better factor model. SAQ factor scores showed positive correlations with the Safety Organizing Scale (r = .56-.72). The SAQ German version showed moderate to strong internal consistency reliability indices (Cronbach alpha = .65-.83).

Conclusions

The German language version of the SAQ demonstrated acceptable to good psychometric properties and therefore shows promise to be a sound instrument to measure patient safety climate in Swiss hospital wards. However, the low item content validity and large number of missing responses for several items suggest that improvements and adaptations in translation are required for select items, especially within the perception of management scale. Following these revisions, psychometric properties should reassessed in a randomly selected sample and hospitals and departments prior to use in Swiss hospital settings.

SUBMITTER: Zimmermann N

PROVIDER: S-EPMC3846625 | biostudies-literature | 2013 Sep

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Assessing the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ), German language version in Swiss university hospitals--a validation study.

Zimmermann Natalie N Küng Kaspar K Sereika Susan M SM Engberg Sandra S Sexton Bryan B Schwendimann René R

BMC health services research 20130910

<h4>Background</h4>Improving patient safety has become a major focus of clinical care and research over the past two decades. An institution's patient safety climate represents an essential component of ensuring a safe environment and thereby can be vital to the prevention of adverse events. Covering six patient safety related factors, the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ) is a validated and widely used instrument to measure the patient safety climate in clinical areas. The objective of this ...[more]

PMID: 24016183

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Project description:BACKGROUND: How to protect patients from harm is a question of universal interest. Measuring and improving safety culture in care giving units is an important strategy for promoting a safe environment for patients. The Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ) is the only instrument that measures safety culture in a way which correlates with patient outcome. We have translated the SAQ to Norwegian and validated the translated version. The psychometric properties of the translated questionnaire are presented in this article. METHODS: The questionnaire was translated with the back translation technique and tested in 47 clinical units in a Norwegian university hospital. SAQ's (the Generic version (Short Form 2006) the version with the two sets of questions on perceptions of management: on unit management and on hospital management) were distributed to 1911 frontline staff. 762 were distributed during unit meetings and 1149 through the postal system. Cronbach alphas, item-to-own correlations, and test-retest correlations were calculated, and response distribution analysis and confirmatory factor analysis were performed, as well as early validity tests. RESULTS: 1306 staff members completed and returned the questionnaire: a response rate of 68%. Questionnaire acceptability was good. The reliability measures were acceptable. The factor structure of the responses was tested by confirmatory factor analysis. 36 items were ascribed to seven underlying factors: Teamwork Climate, Safety Climate, Stress Recognition, Perceptions of Hospital Management, Perceptions of Unit Management, Working conditions, and Job satisfaction. Goodness-of-Fit Indices showed reasonable, but not indisputable, model fit. External validity indicators - recognizability of results, correlations with "trigger tool"-identified adverse events, with patient satisfaction with hospitalization, patient reports of possible maltreatment, and patient evaluation of organization of hospital work - provided preliminary validation. CONCLUSION: Based on the data from Akershus University Hospital, we conclude that the Norwegian translation of the SAQ showed satisfactory internal psychometric properties. With data from one hospital only, we cannot draw strong conclusions on its external validity. Further validation studies linking the SAQ-scores to patient outcome data should be performed.

Project description:BackgroundSafety culture assessment is increasingly recognized as an important component in healthcare quality improvement, also in pharmacies. One of the most commonly used and rigorously validated tools to measure safety culture is the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire; SAQ. This study presents the validation of the SAQ for use in Swedish pharmacies. The psychometric properties of the translated questionnaire are presentedMethodsThe original English language version of the SAQ was translated and adapted to the Swedish context and distributed by e-mail. The survey was carried out on a national basis, covering all 870 Swedish community pharmacies. In total, 7,244 questionnaires were distributed. Scale psychometrics were analysed using Cronbach alphas and intercorrelations among the scales. Multiple group confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was conducted.ResultsSAQ data from 828 community pharmacies in Sweden, including 4,090 (60.22%) pharmacy personnel out of 6,683 eligible respondents, were received. There were 252 (28.97%) pharmacies that met the inclusion criteria of having at least 5 respondents and a minimum response rate of 60% within that pharmacy.The coefficient alpha value for each of the SAQ scales ranged from .72 to .89. The internal consistency results, in conjunction with the confirmatory factor analysis results, demonstrate that the Swedish translation of the SAQ has acceptable to good psychometric properties. Perceptions of the pharmacy (Teamwork Climate, Job Satisfaction, Perceptions of Management, Safety Climate, and Working Conditions) were moderately to highly correlated with one another whereas attitudes about stress (Stress Recognition) had only low correlations with other factors. Perceptions of management showed the most variability across pharmacies (SD = 26.66), whereas Stress Recognition showed the least (SD = 18.58). There was substantial variability ranging from 0% to 100% in the percent of positive scores for each of the factors across the 252 pharmacies.ConclusionsThe Swedish translation of the SAQ demonstrates acceptable construct validity, for capturing the frontline perspective of safety culture of community pharmacy staff. The psychometric results reported here met or exceeded standard guidelines, which is consistent with previous studies using the SAQ in other healthcare settings and other languages.

Project description:BackgroundPatient safety culture involves leader and staff interaction, routines, attitudes, practices and awareness that influence risks of adverse events in patient care. The Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ) is an instrument to measure safety attitudes among health care providers. The instrument aims to identify possible weaknesses in clinical settings and motivate quality improvement interventions leading to reductions in medical errors. The Ambulatory Version of the SAQ (SAQ-A) was developed to measure safety climate in the primary care setting. The original version of the SAQ includes six major patient safety factors: Teamwork climate, Safety climate, Job satisfaction, Perceptions of management, Working conditions, and Stress recognition. Patients in nursing homes are particularly vulnerable to adverse events. We present the psychometric properties of the Norwegian translation of the SAQ-A for the nursing home setting.MethodsThe study was conducted in five nursing homes in Tønsberg, Norway, in February 2016. A total of 463 employees working more than 20% received a paper version of the translated SAQ-A adapted to the Norwegian nursing home setting and responded anonymously. Filled-in questionnaires were scanned and transferred to an SPSS file. SPSS was used to estimate Cronbach alphas, corrected item-total correlations, item-to-own and item-to-other correlations, and item-descriptive statistics. The confirmatory factor analysis was done by AMOS.ResultsOf the 463 health care providers, 288 (62.2%) responded to the questionnaire. The confirmatory factor analysis showed that the total model of the six factors Teamwork climate, Safety climate, Job satisfaction, Perceptions of management, Working conditions, and Stress recognition had acceptable goodness-of-fit values in the nursing home setting.ConclusionsThe results of our study indicate that the Norwegian translated version of the SAQ-A, with the confirmed six factor model, is an appropriate tool for measuring patient safety climate in the nursing home setting. Future research should study whether there is an association between patient safety climate in nursing homes and occurrence of adverse events among the patients.

Project description:BackgroundBack pain in childhood and adolescence increases the risk for back pain in adulthood, but validated assessment tools are scarce. The aim of this study was to validate the Young Spine Questionnaire (YSQ) in a German version (G-YSQ) in children and adolescents.MethodsChildren and adolescents between 10 and 16 years (N = 240, 166 females, mean age = 13.05 ± 1.70 years), recruited in chiropractic practices and schools, completed the G-YSQ (translated according to scientific guidelines) and the KIDSCREEN-10 (assessing health-related quality of life) at three time points. Test-retest reliability was determined calculating intraclass correlation coefficients [ICC(3,1)] using start and two week-data. Construct validity was investigated testing a priori hypotheses. To assess responsiveness, the patients additionally filled in the Patient Global Impression of Change (PGIC) after three months and the area under the curve (AUC) of receiver operating curves was calculated.ResultsThe ICC(3,1) was 0.88 for pain intensity and pain frequency, indicating good reliability, 0.68 for week prevalence and 0.60 for point prevalence, indicating moderate reliability. Pain intensity, frequency and prevalence differed between patients and controls (p < 0.001) and, except point prevalence, between older (> 12 years) and younger control participants (p < 0.01). Health-related quality of life of participants with severe pain (in one or several spinal regions) was lower (KIDSCREEN-10, total score: F(4,230) = 7.26, p < 0.001; KIDSCREEN-10, self-rated general health: H(4) = 51.94, p < 0.001) than that of participants without pain or with moderate pain in one spinal region. Thus, altogether these findings indicate construct validity of the G-YSQ. The AUC was 0.69 (95 % CI = 0.57-0.82) and 0.67 (95 % CI = 0.54-0.80) for week and point prevalence, respectively, indicating insufficient responsiveness of the G-YSQ.ConclusionsApart from the question on point prevalence, construct validity and sufficient test-retest reliability was shown for the G-YSQ. However, its responsiveness needs to be improved, possibly by asking for pain frequency during the last week instead of (dichotomous) week prevalence.Trial registrationClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02955342, registered 07/09/2016, https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/results?cond=&term=NCT02955342&cntry=CH&state=&city=Zurich&dist= .

Project description:BackgroundPerson-centredness is considered as best practice for people living with dementia. A frequently used instrument to assess person-centredness of a care environment is the Person-centred Climate Questionnaire (PCQ). The questionnaire comprises of 14 items with the three subscales a climate of safety, a climate of everydayness and a climate of community.AimThe aim of the study is to describe the translation process of the English language Person-centred Climate Questionnaire (Staff version, Patient version, Family version) into German language (PCQ-G) and to evaluate the first psychometric properties of the German language Person-centred Climate Questionnaire- Staff version (PCQ-G-S).MethodsWe conducted a cross-sectional study. The three versions of the 14-item English PCQ were translated into German language (PCQ-G) based on the recommendations for cross-cultural adaption of measures. Item distribution, internal consistency and structural validity of the questionnaire were assessed among nursing home staff (PCQ-G-S). Item distribution was calculated using descriptive statistics. Structural validity was tested using principal component analysis (PCA), and internal consistency was assessed for the resulting subscales using Cronbach's alpha. Data collection took place from May to September 2021.ResultsA total sample of 120 nurses was included in the data analysis. Nine out of 14 items of the PCQ-G-S demonstrated acceptable item difficulty, while five times showed a ceiling effect. The PCA analysis demonstrated a strong structural validity for a three-factor solution explaining 68.6% of the total variance. The three subscales demonstrated a good internal consistency with Cronbach's alpha scores of 0.8 for each of the subscales.ConclusionThe analysis of the 14-item German version (PCQ-G-S) showed first evidence for a strong internal consistency and structural validity for evaluating staff perceptions of the person-centredness in German nursing homes. Based on this, further investigations for scale validity of the PCQ-G versions should be carried out.

Dataset Information

Assessing the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ), German language version in Swiss university hospitals--a validation study.

Background

Methods

Results

Conclusions

Publications

Assessing the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ), German language version in Swiss university hospitals--a validation study.

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