Examination of the Relationship Between Perceived Manager Support and Medical Error Attitudes Among Healthcare Employees

Özet

Purpose – Managerial support is not limited to tasks such as controlling and supervising employees or planning and maintaining work processes. It also assigns managers the role of guiding and educating employees. Healthcare employees who perceive high levels of managerial support are expected to demonstrate higher job performance. Medical errors in healthcare institutions represent critical adverse events in healthcare delivery. These errors, often irreparable, are among the most significant issues affecting human health. Such errors are critical due to their potential to result in severe adverse outcomes. This study aimed to examine the relationship between perceived manager support and attitudes toward medical errors among healthcare employees. A positive attitude reflects a high level of awareness regarding the importance of error reporting and medical errors. A negative attitude indicates that participants have a low awareness of the importance of error reporting and medical errors.
Design/methodology/approach – This quantitative study was conducted by analyzing data obtained via a survey from 274 healthcare employees working at a university medical school hospital. The perceived manager support scale and the medical error attitudes scales were used in data collection.
Results – Perceived manager support is higher in the middle-income group. Employees in internal medicine clinics perceive higher manager support compared to those in surgical clinics. Intensive care staff are more sensitive to medical errors than emergency department staff. The level of medical error attitudes among physicians and nurses is higher than that of technicians. A weak but statistically significant correlation exists between perceived manager support and attitudes toward medical errors.
Discussion – Training programs and anonymous error reporting can contribute to the prevention of medical errors. It is suggested that a learning-oriented approach to errors by managers would be beneficial.