Patient Safety Climate and Leadership in the Emergency Department

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between the four leadership archetypes identified using the Competing Values Framework and patient safety climate in the ED. We used an established patient safety-rating instrument, the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire, to assess the safety climate. The leadership archetypes were assessed using the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire. Data were gathered using a survey tool approaching RNs from the Emergency Nurses Interest Group and the College and Association of the Registered Nurses of Alberta. Multivariate analyses were used to explore measures of patient safety climate and measures of the leadership archetypes using Pearson’s correlation and OLS regression models. The findings provide particular support for a contingent relationship between employee-centered leadership and entrepreneurial leadership, and patient safety climate in the Emergency Department. Employee-centered and entrepreneurial leadership archetypes were found to be instrumental in fostering patient safety climate in the ED.