Patient safety attitude scale in dentistry: development and validation study in Türkiye

Abstract

BackgroundThis cross-sectional study aimed to develop a measurement tool to assess dental health workers' attitudes towards patient safety.MethodsThe candidate items for the questionnaire were developed and assessed for content validity by an expert panel. The reliability and validity of the Patient Safety Attitude Scale were examined by administering the finalized items to a sample of 312 dental healthcare professionals in Province Ankara. Participation was voluntary, and data were collected via the SurveyMonkey web platform. SPSS 26 and AMOS 24 were used for reliability and validity analysis.ResultsThe study found that most dental healthcare workers, with a mean age of 30.4 years and 74.4% female, reported moderate to high workloads, while only 7.1% had a light workload. Among them, 41% had received patient safety training, and 54.8% had witnessed a medical error. Factor analysis identified two factors: 'risk management' and 'ethical attitude,' together explaining 53.09% of the variance. The Cronbach's alpha value for the overall scale was 0.911, with 'risk management' (CA = 0.896) and 'ethical attitude' (CA = 0.692) demonstrating adequate internal consistency. A weak positive correlation was observed between patient safety attitudes and ethical knowledge, with higher safety scores among women and trained participants.ConclusionsThis study develops and validates a Patient Safety Attitude Scale in Dentistry Practices that can be used.