팀워크, 환자안전인식, 수술실 방해요인이 수술실 간호사의 안전관리활동에 미치는 영향
Impact of Teamwork, Patient Safety Culture, and Operating Room Distractions on Patient Safety Management Activities among Perioperative Nurses
Article information
Trans Abstract
Purpose
Teamwork and perceptions of patient safety culture are positive factors in operating room (OR) nurses’ patient safety management activities. Distractions in the OR may negatively impact OR nurses’ patient safety management activities; however, the relationship between these variables has not yet been explored. This study aimed to determine the relationships among teamwork, perception of patient safety culture, distractions in the OR, and patient safety management activities among OR nurses.
Methods
A descriptive cross-sectional study was conducted with 149 OR nurses from U Metropolitan City. Structured questionnaires were used to assess teamwork, perceptions of patient safety culture, distractions in the OR, and patient safety management activities. T-tests, one-way analysis of variance, Pearson's correlation analysis, and hierarchical linear regression were used for data analysis.
Results
Positive correlations were found among teamwork, perception of the patient safety culture, and patient safety management activities (all p <.001). Auditory distractions in the OR were negatively correlated with patient safety management activities (r=-0.21, p = .011). Hierarchical linear regression revealed that teamwork(β=0.28, p=.007), perception of patient safety culture (β=0.24, p=.016), and visual (β=-0.22, p = .023) and communication distractions (β=-0.26, p = .002) were associated with patient safety management activities.
Conclusion
Strategic interventions are thus needed to strengthen teamwork, foster a positive patient safety culture, and minimize distractions in the OR to enhance patient safety management activities among OR nurses.
I. INTRODUCTION
Patient safety is an important healthcare issue worldwide, defined as preventing errors that could harm patients with healthcare, learning from errors that do occur, and creating a safe healthcare environment for patients [1]. The importance of patients safety has been further emphasized since the Patient Safety Act went into effect on July 29, 2016, in South Korea[2]. Patient safety has been recognized as a key indicator for evaluating healthcare services in hospitals, leading to patient safety management activities [3,4].
In 2008, the World Health Organization(WHO) developed the “Surgical Safety Checklist” to effectively prevent potential patient safety incidents during surgery [5]. Based on this, the National Accreditation Agency for Medical Institutions developed a Korean version of the Surgical Patient Safety Guidelines, which emphasizes the participation of all medical staff involved in surgery to carry out pre-anesthesia, pre-incision, and predischarge confirmation[6]. However, the number of patient safety incidents in the operating room (OR) increased by an average of 1.9% each year, reaching 304 cases in 2023 and 303 cases in 2024 according to the Korea Patient Safety Reporting and Learning System (KOPS) [7]. Also, it was reported that patients safety incidents related to surgery and anesthesia accounted for the highest proportion as 49.9% of all patient safety incidents as a result of data analysis on OR incidents from the KOPS [8]. Patient safety incidents occurring in the OR carried a higher likelihood of resulting in serious harm, including adverse events or sentinel events, and prolonged hospital stays [8,9]. Therefore, for preventing patient safety incidents, healthcare professionals working at the OR need to be alert and aware of patient safety incidents, and furthermore, they need to have patient safety competency, leading to patient safety management activities.
A systematic review of patient safety in South Korea indicated that the majority of studies have primarily addressed nurses’ activities related to patient safety management[10]. A systematic review of nurses’ patient safety management activities in South Korea identified patient safety culture as a positive factor of patient safety management activities at organizational level[11]. Patient safety culture is the shared commitment in a healthcare setting to keep patients safe, openly discuss mistakes, and improve safety together[12]. A meta-path analysis on nurses’ patient safety management activities revealed that patient safety culture at organizational level had indirect effects on patient safety management activities through nurses’ perceptions of the importance of patient safety management and their patient safety competency[13]. Likewise, it was found that the higher the perception of patient safety culture among OR nurses, the more actively patient safety management activities have been conducted [14-16].
Particularly in the OR, healthcare professionals collaborate interdependently and perform complex and precise tasks that require a high degree of concentration[17]. As surgical procedures become more complex, with an increasing variety of surgical tools and specialized equipment, the need for effective teamwork in ensuring patient safety has become more critical [18]. The WHO has also emphasized the importance of teamwork and communication among healthcare professionals at the OR, encouraging all involved healthcare professionals to share patient information and surgical process details [19]. Superior teamwork has shown to be one of perioperative patient safety indicators [20] and be associated with a shorter length of hospital stay in patient outcomes [21]. Also, teamwork was a positive factor of patient safety management activities of OR nurses in prior investigations [14,22].
To establish a safe environment for patients in the OR, it is necessary to evaluate the factors that may disrupt surgical flow[23,24]. Healthcare professionals in the OR have been exposed to various types of disruptions, including auditory, visual, equipment-related, and environmental factors [25-28]. Auditory disruptions such as equipment alarms and sound, or phone calls were identified to impair communication [29], and increase the risk of errors during the surgical procedures [30]. Visual disruptions such as higher number of door openings were shown to increase the likelihood of surgical site infections[31]. Equipment-related disruptions such as shortage of equipment or equipment availability increased the job stress of OR nurses[32], which can affect patient safety management activities of OR nurses. Communication disruptions such as case-irrelevant conversation and environmental disruptions including excessive heat/cold or poor physical working condition were also frequently reported among perioperative nurses[25,28]. However, while previous studies have shown the partial link between a disruption factor and patient safety outcomes, research on the relationship between various types of surgical disruption and patient safety management activities of OR nurses are limited. Furthermore, it is necessary to investigate the relationship of the distracting factors in the OR that threaten patient safety to perception of patient safety culture and teamwork which has been positively associated with patient safety management activities of OR nurses.
Therefore, the aims of this study were 1) to identify OR nurses’ perceived distractions; 2) to determine the relationships among teamwork, perception of patient safety culture, distractions in the OR, and patient safety management activities of nurses working in the OR; and 3) to determine whether any type of distractions in the OR were associated with patient safety management activities of OR nurses after controlling for teamwork and perception of patient safety culture.
Ⅱ. METHODS
1. Study Design
A descriptive, cross-sectional study design was used in this study to examine the relationships among teamwork, perception of patient safety culture, distractions in the OR, and patient safety management activity among nurses working in the OR. The study participants were recruited from Ulsan University Hospital, Ulsan, South Korea.
2. Study Subjects
Nurses working at the OR for more than three months as a scrub nurse, a circulating nurse, an anesthesia nurse, or a surgical assistant(SA) nurse in the perioperative process were eligible to participate in this study. Nurses with less than 3 months of clinical experience, new nurses undergoing job training, or nursing managers in the OR were excluded from this study. According to the Position Statement established by the Association of Perioperative Registered Nurses(AORN), the recommended minimum orientation period for perioperative nurses is at least three months. The first 3 months correspond to the institution's perioperative orientation and skill-acquisition period. Therefore, nurses with less than three months of clinical experience were excluded from this study. The G*Power program 3.1.9.7 for Window was used to estimate the sample size with a medium effect size of 0.15 and an expected R2 for teamwork, perception of patient safety culture, and distractions in the OR in the multiple linear regressions [33]. A minimum sample size was estimated to be 146 with α of 0.05, 80% power (1-β), and up to 17 independent variables for multiple linear regressions. Considering the 10% dropout rate, a total of 160 participants were recruited, and 11 participants did not complete the questionnaire. Therefore, data from 149 participants were included in the final analysis.
3. Measures
1) General characteristics
General characteristics were obtained through a self-reported questionnaire from the participants including sex, age, type of hospital, education level, clinical career at the OR, working pattern, job position, number of surgical patients per day, experience of patient safety management education, and the most recent date, contents, and methods of patient safety management education. Patient safety management education experience at least once within three months was shown to be positively related to patient safety management activities in previous studies [16,32], and the most recent education date was divided by three months.
2) Teamwork
Teamwork is defined not simply as working together, but as the integration of knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary for functioning as a team of two or more[34]. In this study, teamwork was measured using a modified version of the TeamSTEPPS Teamwork Perceptions Questionnaire, developed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality [35]. The questionnaire was adapted by An and Lee(2016) for the OR context of Korea and administered to perioperative medical staff [22]. This questionnaire consists of 35 items across five domains: team structure, leadership, situation monitoring, mutual support, and communication. Each item was rated on a scale from 1(not at all) to 5 (very severe), with higher scores indicating better teamwork. In a previous study [36] on the development of a teamwork improvement program for patient safety in the perioperative period, the Cronbach's α coefficient for this questionnaire was .92, while it was .95 in our study.
3) Perception of Patient Safety Culture
The perception of patient safety culture refers to the awareness and understanding of healthcare staff regarding the shared values, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors within an organization that aim to minimize patient harm during healthcare delivery [12]. The OR nurses’ perceptions of patient safety culture was assessed using a modified version of the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ) [12], which is a widely used, validated survey tool designed to assess the safety culture or climate within healthcare organizations. A modified, Korean version of the SAQ consists of a total of 30 items and six domains: safety climate, teamwork climate, working conditions, stress recognition, perception of management, and job satisfaction [37]. Each item was rated on a 5-point Likert scale from 1(strongly disagree) to 5(strongly agree), with a higher score indicating a more positive perception of patient safety culture. The Cronbach's α for the modified Korean version of the SAQ was .92 in previous study [37], and it was .93 in this study.
4) Distractions in the OR
Distractions in the OR refer to any stimuli or events that interfere with concentration, communication, and workflow of surgical team [25]. The Korean version of the Distractions in the OR [28] was used to assess distracting factors in OR nurses in this study. This instrument comprises 74 items across 5 domains: auditory, visual, equipment, communication, and environment. Participants were asked whether they considered the following factors to be distracting in the OR. The frequency of experiencing each distraction factor and the degree of bothersomeness in the OR were rated on a 5-point Likert scale from 1 to 5. Higher scores indicated more frequent and more bothersome experiences of distractions. The extent of impact on the flow of surgery was rated on a 5-point Likert scale, with each item scored as follows: 1(negative impact), 2(somewhat negative), 3(no impact), 4(somewhat positive), and 5 (positive impact). In addition, participants were asked to rank the most distracting domain and to explain their reasoning. The extent of impact on surgical flow was reverse-scored so that a higher score indicates a more negative impact on surgical flow. Then, the total score was calculated by adding the frequency, degree of bothersomeness, and extent of impact on surgical flow for each of the 5 domains. A Cronbach's α coefficient was .87 in a previous study [28], and it was .90 in this study.
5) Patient Safety Management Activity
The Patient Safety Management Activity questionnaire was developed to measure the level of patient safety management activities among OR nurses in Korea[37]. The patient safety management activity of OR nurses was assessed across six domains: infection control, specimen management, pre-operative confirmation, medical equipment and accessory management, counting, and injury prevention. The Patient Safety Management Activity questionnaire consists of a total of 35 self-reported items, and each item is rated on a 5-point Likert scale from 1 to 5, with a higher score indicating a better implementation of safety management activities by OR nurses. In previous research [37], Cronbach's α coefficient was .94, and in this study, it was .94.
4. Data Collection
After the primary researcher explained the purpose and procedures of this study to eligible study subjects, written consent was obtained from all participants. Then, questionnaires were provided for participants, and data collection took approximately 20-30 minutes. Each completed questionnaire was returned to the primary researcher in a sealed envelope. When returning the questionnaire, a gift worth approximately 2,500 won was given to all participants. Data collection was conducted from September 1 to September 30, 2024.
5. Ethical considerations
The research proposal was approved by the Institutional Review Board of Ulsan University Hospital to ensure the protection of the rights of human subjects (UUH 2024-08-025), before data collection. Written informed consent was obtained from all participants.
6. Data Analysis
All data analyses were performed using SPSS for Windows 27.0(IBM, Armonk, New York, USA). A p-value of < .05 was considered statistically significant. Descriptive statistics were shown as means with standard deviations and frequencies with numbers. Independent t-tests and one-way analysis of variance(ANOVA) were used to identify differences in patient safety management activities according to the general characteristics. Pearson's correlation coefficient was used to examine the relationships between teamwork, perception of patient safety culture, distractions in the OR, and patient safety management activities.
This study maintained the assumption of no multicollinearity, with tolerance values ranging from 0.48 to 0.69 and variance inflation factors (VIF) between 1.45 and 2.07 (close to 1-2). Hierarchical linear regression analysis was used to determine the relationships of distractions in the OR to patient safety management activities of OR nurses, after controlling for teamwork and perception of patient safety culture, and other variables related to patient safety management activities with a p-value<.10 in univariate analysis. The p-value cutoff in univariate analysis was set above the conventional p -value of .05 to avoid excluding potentially important predictors and confounders from the multivariate model, which is in line with the purposeful selection strategies recommended in regression modeling [38].
Ⅲ. RESULTS
1. General Characteristics and Patient Safety Management Activities of Participants by general characteristics
The general characteristics of the 149 OR nurses are shown in Table 1. Among the participants, 121 (81%) were female, and the average age was 31.99±6.55 years. Most participants (73.2%) had a bachelor's degree. The average clinical career at the OR was 95.56 ± 84.98 months, with 50% of the participants having more than 72 months of experience. Regarding work patterns, 70 participants (47.0%) worked in 3-shift rotations, and 35 (23.5%) worked in regular day shift with on-call duty. The job positions were as follows: 50(33.6%) staff nurses, 48 (32.2%) surgical assistants, 32 (21.5%) anesthesia nurses, and 19 (12.8%) charge nurses. The average number of surgical patients assigned per day was 3.72 ± 1.40, with 50% of participants caring for 4 or more patients. A total of 110 participants (73.8%) had received education for patient safety management, and 51 (34.2%) had received education within the past 3 months. The most common content of education for patient safety management was infection control, followed by specimen management and preoperative check. Among the general characteristics, there were no variables that showed differences in the patient safety management activities of the study subjects(all p>.05)(Table 1).
2. Teamwork, Perception of Patient Safety Culture, and Patient Safety Management Activities of Participants
The teamwork of the subjects of this study was 3.97±0.44 on average, and the team structure was the highest among the five domains. The perception of patient safety culture was 3.53±0.47 on average, and teamwork climate and safety climate were the highest among the six domains. The patient safety management activity was 4.34 ±0.42 on average, and the preoperative check was the highest among the six domains, followed by the injury prevention (Table 2).
3. Distractions in the OR
In terms of experience with distracting factors in the OR, 122 subjects(81.9%) experienced equipment shortages among the equipment domain and poor physical working condition among the environment domain the most, followed by equipment availability among the equipment domain and excessive heat/cold among the environment domain with 115 subjects (77.2%). Among all distracting factors in the OR, the most frequent was the door opening during the case, followed by phone calls/pagers/beepers, and case relevant conversations. Participants responded that poor physical working conditions, such as standing for long time or being in a fixed position, was the most bothersome factor. The factor that had the most negative impact on the surgical flow was the poor physical working conditions, followed by the equipment shortage. Lastly, the largest proportion of OR nurses (35.6%) identified the environment domain as the most distracting domain among five domains, followed in order by equipment, communication, auditory, and visual (Table 3).
4. Correlation between Teamwork, Perception of Patient Safety Culture, Distractions, and Patient Safety Management Activities
Teamwork(r=0.32, p<.001) and perception of patient safety culture(r=0.36, p<.001) had a positive correlation with patient safety management activities. Auditory domain of distractions in the OR showed significantly negative correlation with patient safety management activities (r=-0.21, p =.011) (Table 4).
5. Factors Associated with Patient Safety Management Activities of OR nurses
The hierarchical multiple linear regression analysis to determine factors associated with patient safety management activities was presented in Table 5. Experience of education for patient safety management with a p -value <.10 in univariate analysis, teamwork, and perception of patient safety culture were included in step 1, and then, auditory, visual, and communication domains of distractions in the OR were added in step 2. Teamwork(β=0.28, p=.007), perception of patient safety culture(β=0.24, p=.016), visual distractions (β=-0.22, p=.023), and communication distraction (β=-0.26, p = .002) were associated with patient safety management activities. In step 1, teamwork and perception of patient safety culture explained about 22% of patient safety management activities of OR nurses(F=11.32, p<.001). In step 2, visual and communication distractions contributed an additional 4% to explaining patient safety management activities (F = 8.52, p <.001) (Table 5).
Ⅳ. DISCUSSIOS
This study focused on the relationships among teamwork, perception of the patient safety culture, distracting factors in the OR and patient safety management activities of OR nurses, exploring strategies for ensuring patient safety in the OR. The major findings of this study indicate that visual and communication distractions in the OR were associated with patient safety management activities of OR nurses after controlling for teamwork and perceptions of the patient safety culture.
In this study, it was determined that visual domain including door openings, increased room traffic, and staff changeovers during cases was the least distracting domain among the five domains, and door opening during cases emerged as the most frequent distracting factor. These findings were similar to those of previous studies about distractions in the OR [25,28]. A recent individual-patient data meta-analysis demonstrated that frequent intraoperative door openings have been linked to a marginally increased risk of surgical site infection[39]. Also, staff changeover during cases was associated with prolonged OR time [40], and increased room traffic within case appeared to have more incidence of postoperative complications [41]. These findings, together with ours, support the importance of implementing strategies to reduce door openings and OR traffic during cases to enhance patient safety in the OR. A visual feedback using electronic door counters [42] or door alarms [43] could be recommended to reduce unnecessary door openings and OR traffic. In addition, it is recommended that protocols should be established to minimize traffic into and out of the OR during procedures. Furthermore, comprehensive education would be provided for all staff regarding the detrimental impact of visual distractions and the critical importance of maintaining concentration throughout cases.
Another distraction associated with patient safety management activities of OR nurses was the communication domain in this study. Case-irrelevant conversations occurred more frequently than case-relevant conversations, patient-related consultations, and surgical training or teaching within the communication domain, and were perceived as more disruptive, adversely affecting the surgical flow in this study, aligning with previous investigations of distractions in the OR [25,28,44,45]. After implementation of behavioral guidelines to limit case-irrelevant conversations as a strategy for noise reduction program, case-irrelevant conversations and responses indicating that noise affected the task significantly decreased (46), and postoperative complication rate was significantly lower[47]. Accordingly, it is essential to establish an organizational culture in which perioperative team members consistently refrain from engaging in unnecessary patient-unrelated conversations. Such efforts are expected to enhance patient safety management activities and contribute to a reduction in preventable adverse events.
Aside from disruptive factors, one of the key facilitators of patient safety management activities of perioperative nurses was identified as teamwork in this study. Also, it was previously reported that teamwork was positively associated with patient safety management activities of OR nurses [13,21]. Effective teamwork has been emphasized as a critical factor in reducing the patient safety incidents and improving the efficiency of healthcare professionals’ performance[18]. As a result of implementing a teamwork training program in the OR, work efficiency among intraoperative staffs was improved and patient safety issues were reduced [48]. In our study, leadership was the lowest among the subdomains of teamwork, which is consistent with the findings of a previous study [22], as the primary surgeon usually has played the role of the team leader in the surgical team. The leadership training program for perioperative nurses, particularly in relation to ensuring the consistent completion of the Surgical Safety Checklist, would be implemented at an organizational level [49].
Another key facilitator of patient safety management activities of OR nurses was identified as perception of patient safety culture in this study. The higher the perception of patient safety culture among OR nurses, the more actively they engage in patient safety management activities, which are aligned with previous studies[14-16]. Additionally, it was found that teamwork climate and safety climate were the highest among six domains of perception of patient safety culture in this study. Similarly, in a recent scoping review examining the association between patient safety culture and adverse events, teamwork climate and safety climate consistently emerged as the most frequently identified dimensions linked to lower rates of adverse events[50]. Therefore, the development and implementation of programs aimed at fostering teamwork culture and enhancing safety culture are warranted at the organizational level to cultivate an environment where medical errors are openly discussed, improvements are collaboratively pursued, and mutual support is actively promoted.
This study has several limitations to be addressed. Our study was a cross-sectional study, and all variables were assessed at once, which could not indicate the causal relationship among teamwork, perception of patient safety culture, distraction factors, and patient safety management activities of OR nurses. In addition, our study focused on OR nurses in a general hospital and a tertiary medical center in South Korea. Therefore, our findings warrant further research to determine the relationships among teamwork, perception of patient safety culture, distraction factors, and patient safety management activities of all medical staff working in the OR and would be extended to other clinical settings. Furthermore, future work would be required to evaluate the effects of a training program that fosters the patient safety environment on patient clinical outcomes through randomized controlled trials.
Ⅴ. CONCLUSIONS
Our study determined that OR nurses with higher levels of teamwork and greater perception of patient safety culture engaged more actively in patient safety management activities. On the other side, among the disruption factors examined, visual distractions and communication factors were determined to have a negative impact on patient safety management activities of OR nurses. It is essential to prioritize initiatives that strengthen teamwork and enhance awareness of patient safety culture among OR nurses, as well as to eliminate distractions within the OR environment, for optimizing patient safety management activities.
Notes
Conflict of interest
The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Funding
This study received no external funding.
Data availability statement
The data that support the findings of this study are available on request from the corresponding author. The data are not publicly available due to privacy or ethical restriction.
