Safety Competency: Exploring the Impact of Environmental and Personal Factors on the Nurse's Ability to Deliver Safe Care.

BACKGROUND:Patient safety is a priority in health care systems. Nurses' safety competence along with environmental and personal factors plays a role in patient safety. PURPOSE:The purpose of this study was to explore the relationships among safety competency, structural empowerment, systems thinking, level of education, and certification. METHODS:A cross-sectional exploratory design was used to collect data from nurses (n = 163) practicing in a large Midwestern hospital system. RESULTS:There were significant positive correlations between safety competency and ( a ) structural empowerment, ( b ) systems thinking, and ( c ) certification. Systems thinking explained 12.9% of the variance in the knowledge component of safety competency and 6.8% of the variance in the skill component of safety competency. Certification explained 2.4% of the variance in the skill component of safety competency. CONCLUSIONS:Understanding factors that affect safety competency supports the development of effective interventions that may improve safety.