Patient Safety Attitude in Iranian Health Care Workers: A Systematic Review

Aim: Patient safety is one of the most important parameters of quality health care. The role of health care workers in providing safe care is essential, and their positive attitudes towards this issue will positively affect patient safety. This review aimed to investigate the attitudes of health care workers towards patient safety in Iran. Method and Materials: The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyzes (PRISMA) guideline was used to conduct the present review. Data resources including SID, Magiran, Scopus, PubMed, ISC, Web of science, and Google Scholar were chosen to conduct the literature search both in Persian and English without any time limit until the end of January 2021. Inclusion criteria included all English or Persian language studies in which the Safety Attitude Questionnaire (SAQ) was used to assess the attitude of Iranian health care workers towards patient safety. Findings: In the primary search, 342 studies were obtained, finally 11 of which were reviewed. Among these, 10 studies had cross-sectional designs, and one study was a quasi-experimental research. Overall, 2162 health care workers were analyzed. The results of the present study showed that most health care workers in Iran had unfavorable attitudes towards patient safety. Conclusion: As upgrading health care workers’ attitudes seems necessary to improve patients’ safety, it is recommended that health organizations provide regular patients’ safety training, both at employment time and during service to the health care workers who are in direct and indirect contact with patients.