La cultura della sicurezza nei contesti sanitari: significati e rappresentazioni dei professionisti sanitari

Despite a growing interest on the concept of Safety Culture may be recognized in Italy, the effectiveness of safety governance policies that have been recently activated inside hospitals cannot ignore the knowledge of the way in which healthcare specialists identify safety. Through free-word association to the stimulus «safety is», healthcare specialists’ beliefs about what safety should be, the way in which safety should be put in place and on what safety depends have been explored. Results indicate that the concept of «safety» refers more to the individual actions than to a deep-rooted and shared culture permeating health care environment. Professionals are aware that their actions must be oriented to the patient safety, but they share a limited view of the construct of safety culture.