Association between patient safety culture and professional quality of life among nursing professionals

Objective: To analyze the association between patient safety culture and professional quality of life in nursing professionals. Method: Correlational study carried out in a hospital in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, with 180 participants. The data were collected through the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture and Professional Quality of Life Scale and analyzed with correlation tests. Results: The use of the Quality of Professional Life model, which encompasses Compassion Satisfaction, Burnout and Traumatic Stress, showed that a better assessment of the safety culture was negatively associated with Burnout. Regarding the dimensions of culture, better evaluations of the general perception of safety, teamwork and staffing were negatively associated with Burnout and Traumatic Stress. Higher Burnout was negatively associated with better handoffs and greater Traumatic Stress was positively associated with error communication. Conclusion: Higher levels of Burnout were associated with worse perception of safety culture and worse teamwork evaluations; staffing and general perception of safety were associated to a higher level of Burnout and Traumatic Stress, which emphasizes the importance of investment in these areas.