Creating quality of life: Creating a culture of patient safety in the nursing home setting

The purpose of this research was to (a) explore the relationship between caregivers' perceptions of a culture of patient safety and caregivers' fall-prevention performance on a long-term-care nursing unit and (b) explore the relationship between a team-based human factors training program and caregivers' fall-prevention performance on a long-term-care nursing unit. In the present study, the Nursing Home Survey on Patient Safety Culture was used to study the impact of human factors based training on caregivers' perceptions of patient safety culture across 12 identifiable dimensions of healthcare safety. Survey results were then analyzed in relation to caregivers' fall-prevention performance following human factors training. It was hypothesized that the research would uncover a measurable relationship between caregivers' perceptions of a culture of patient safety and their fall-prevention performance and between caregivers' participation in a human factors based training program and their fall-prevention performance. The results indicated no measurable relationship between caregivers' perceptions of patient safety culture dimensions and their ability to prevent the patients from falling nor did the data uncover a relationship between caregivers' participation in human factors based training and their fall-prevention performance. The results did show a measurable increase in caregivers' perceptions of a culture of patient safety on the nursing unit following participation in human factors based training.