Association of hospital safety climate and compliance with occupational safety practices among nurse interns: A cross-sectional study using canonical correlation analysis.

Background And Aims: Nurse interns may be at a similar or higher risk than registered nurses. The key elements and mechanisms involved in the effects of safety climate on safety performance are not well understood. This study explores the relationship between the perceived hospital safety climate and compliance with occupational safety practices among nurse interns.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 178 nurse interns in three tertiary university hospitals in Chongqing city, China. The Chinese version of the Hospital Safety Climate Scale (HSCS) was used to measure the perceived hospital safety climate of nurse interns. Compliance behavior was measured using the Compliance with Occupational Safety Practice Scale (COSPS). Canonical correlation analysis and multiple linear regression modeling were used to examine their relationship.

Results: Total scores for the HSCS and COSPS were 92 (80,100) and 185 (175,185) [ (25, 75)], respectively. Canonical correlation coefficients for canonical variates 1 and 2 were 0.636 ( < 0.001) and 0.414 ( < 0.001), respectively. Nurse interns' compliance with occupational safety practices was mainly influenced by management support, feedback/training, personal protective and engineering control equipment availability, and absence of job hindrance. Multiple linear regression showed that management support of HSCS accounted for 37.1% of the variance in compliance ( = 0.283,  = 0.039).

Conclusion: Nurse interns reported high levels of perceived hospital safety climate and compliance with occupational safety practices. Younger nurse interns reported a lower level of perceived hospital safety climate. Nurse educators can improve interns' compliance by promoting better management support, feedback/training, personal protective and engineering control equipment availability, and fewer job hindrance.