Abstract
Purpose: Patient safety remains a critical challenge in healthcare services. According to the World Health Organization, approximately 10% of patients suffered harm within healthcare systems, resulting in an estimated million deaths annually due to unsafe practice. The study objective was to compare advanced practice nurses, physician assistants, and attending physicians’ responses to overall patient safety ratings and error reporting.
Methods: An Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality data set provided responses of patient safety and error reporting submitted by 3,659 advanced practice nurses (APN), 1,044 physician assistants, and 5,140 attending physicians. The Hospital Survey of Patient Safety Cultural version 2.0 consisting of 10 composite measures and 32 survey items was used. A secondary data analysis was conducted with the data set. The statistical approaches used to analyze the categorical, original and scale data included analysis of variance, Kruskal-Wallis test, linear regression, and Chi-square tests.
Results: Respondents identified the hospitals setting as teaching (70.6%) and ownership being public non-government, non-profit (73%). Respondents identified their work area as multiple units, medical/surgical units, patient care units, surgical services or clinical services (76%). Findings showed each of the three hospital positions rated patient safety significantly different. APNs rated patient safety lower (µ=3.4) than physician assistants (µ=3.6) and attending physicians (µ=3.8). Linear relationships found significant different indicating level of position correlates to changes in error reporting and overall patient safety rating. APNs reported errors more frequently than attending physicians and physician assistants.
Implications: The key to meeting the goal of “zero” harm set by the National Steering Committee for Patient Safety’s is for healthcare systems to foster and sustain a robust safety culture is recognizing errors have occurred. APNs should lead healthcare organizations in recognizing and reporting errors. Their reporting add value to prevent future errors. Hospital administrators must be aware of errors to begin the process to decrease and ultimately eliminate these costly events. Recognizing the differences in hospital providers error reporting and overall hospital safety rating suggests APNs have applied their knowledge and skills effectively to recognize and report errors and near misses.
Notes
Reference list included in attached slide deck.
Sigma Membership
Pi Theta
Type
Presentation
Format Type
Text-based Document
Study Design/Type
Other
Research Approach
Quantitative Research
Keywords:
Competence, Policy and Advocacy, Sustainable Development Goals, Promoting Clinical Outcomes, Patient Safety, Error Reporting
Recommended Citation
Kippenbrock, Thomas and Emory, DeAnna Jan, "Nurse Practitioners Comparison to Other Hospital Providers: Patient Safety" (2025). Biennial Convention (CONV). 149.
https://www.sigmarepository.org/convention/2025/presentations_2025/149
Conference Name
48th Biennial Convention
Conference Host
Sigma Theta Tau International
Conference Location
Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Conference Year
2025
Rights Holder
All rights reserved by the author(s) and/or publisher(s) listed in this item record unless relinquished in whole or part by a rights notation or a Creative Commons License present in this item record. All permission requests should be directed accordingly and not to the Sigma Repository. All submitting authors or publishers have affirmed that when using material in their work where they do not own copyright, they have obtained permission of the copyright holder prior to submission and the rights holder has been acknowledged as necessary.
Review Type
Abstract Review Only: Reviewed by Event Host
Acquisition
Proxy-submission
Date of Issue
2025-12-01
Nurse Practitioners Comparison to Other Hospital Providers: Patient Safety
Indianapolis, Indiana, USA
Purpose: Patient safety remains a critical challenge in healthcare services. According to the World Health Organization, approximately 10% of patients suffered harm within healthcare systems, resulting in an estimated million deaths annually due to unsafe practice. The study objective was to compare advanced practice nurses, physician assistants, and attending physicians’ responses to overall patient safety ratings and error reporting.
Methods: An Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality data set provided responses of patient safety and error reporting submitted by 3,659 advanced practice nurses (APN), 1,044 physician assistants, and 5,140 attending physicians. The Hospital Survey of Patient Safety Cultural version 2.0 consisting of 10 composite measures and 32 survey items was used. A secondary data analysis was conducted with the data set. The statistical approaches used to analyze the categorical, original and scale data included analysis of variance, Kruskal-Wallis test, linear regression, and Chi-square tests.
Results: Respondents identified the hospitals setting as teaching (70.6%) and ownership being public non-government, non-profit (73%). Respondents identified their work area as multiple units, medical/surgical units, patient care units, surgical services or clinical services (76%). Findings showed each of the three hospital positions rated patient safety significantly different. APNs rated patient safety lower (µ=3.4) than physician assistants (µ=3.6) and attending physicians (µ=3.8). Linear relationships found significant different indicating level of position correlates to changes in error reporting and overall patient safety rating. APNs reported errors more frequently than attending physicians and physician assistants.
Implications: The key to meeting the goal of “zero” harm set by the National Steering Committee for Patient Safety’s is for healthcare systems to foster and sustain a robust safety culture is recognizing errors have occurred. APNs should lead healthcare organizations in recognizing and reporting errors. Their reporting add value to prevent future errors. Hospital administrators must be aware of errors to begin the process to decrease and ultimately eliminate these costly events. Recognizing the differences in hospital providers error reporting and overall hospital safety rating suggests APNs have applied their knowledge and skills effectively to recognize and report errors and near misses.
Description
Patient safety remains a critical challenge in healthcare services. The study objective was to compare advanced practice nurses, physician assistants, and attending physicians’ responses to overall patient safety ratings and error reporting. Recognizing the differences in hospital provider error reporting and overall hospital safety rating suggests that APNs have effectively applied their knowledge and skills to recognize and report errors and near misses.