Investigating the Psychometric Characteristics of the Persian Version of the Patient Safety Climate Questionnaire in Health Care Organizations (PSCHO)

Introduction and purpose: The increase of unsafe events in healthcare environments can cause injuries to healthcare personnel and patients. Understanding the patient safety climate in an organization using a valid and reliable tool can reduce these risks and injuries to the patient. The present study aims to investigate the validity and reliability of the Persian version of the Patient Safety Climate Questionnaire in Health Care Organizations (PSCHO). Methods: The study was started by obtaining permission from the original author of the instrument. This questionnaire was first translated into Farsi by a group of experts using the forward-backward translation method; then, it was translated into English. After the English version was approved by the original author, the final Persian version was formed. The final questionnaire was completed by 221 healthcare workers from three public hospitals in Sari, Iran. The statistical indicators used include Cronbach's alpha coefficient, content validity index (CVI), content validity ratio (CVR), and Pearson correlation. Results: This study was conducted in the second half of 2022. Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the whole questionnaire is 0.883. The average CVR and CVI were calculated as 0.59 and 0.81 according to the opinions of 30 occupational health, ergonomics, and nursing experts. Conclusion: This study has shown that the PSCHO has high reliability and validity and can be used to evaluate and identify the level of patient safety in healthcare centers.