The impact of social capital on clinical risk management in nursing: a survey in Iranian public educational hospitals.

Aim: This study aimed to explore the social capital impact on clinical risk management from nurses' viewpoints.

Design: This was a cross-sectional and analytical study conduct in six public educational hospitals affiliated to Tehran University of Medical Sciences (TUMS).

Method: Questionnaires were used as the data collection tool. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics, parametric and non-parametric tests by SPSS 16 at a significance level of 0.05.

Results: Risk management, social capital and all its three dimensions evaluated in moderate level. It is confirmed that the social capital is one of the factors associated with the improvement of clinical risk management. There was a significant relationship between clinical risk management and social capital. In this respect, hospital managers and decision-makers could enhance clinical risk management by identifying and increasing different dimensions of social capital which consequently led to have a better patient safety culture in hospitals.