Neonatal intensive care unit safety culture varies widely

Background Variation in healthcare delivery and outcomes in neonatal intensive care units (NICUs) may be partly explained by differences in safety culture. Objective To describe NICU care giver assessments of safety culture, explore variability within and between NICUs on safety culture domains, and test for association with care giver characteristics. Methods NICU care givers in 12 hospitals were surveyed using the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ), which has six scales: teamwork climate, safety climate, job satisfaction, stress recognition, perception of management and working conditions. Scale means, SDs and percent positives (percent agreement) were calculated for each NICU. Results There was substantial variation in safety culture domains among NICUs. Composite mean score across the six domains ranged from 56.3 to 77.8 on a 100-point scale and NICUs in the top four NICUs were significantly different from the bottom four (p