The implementation of evidence-based practice guidelines can be influenced by nurses’ perceptions of the organizational safety culture. Shift-by-shift management of each nursing unit is designated to a subset of staff nurses (charge nurses), whom are often recruited as champions for change. The findings indicate that compared to charge nurses, noncharge nurses were more positive about overall perceptions of safety ( ) and teamwork ( ). Among charge nurses, significant differences were observed based on the number of years’ experience in charge: perception of teamwork within units [ , ]; overall perceptions of safety, [ , ]; safety grade for work area [ , ]; number of events reported within the last month [ , ]. These findings provide important insights to organizational contextual factors that may impact effectiveness outcomes research in the future. 1. Introduction With the increasing emphasis in the efficient delivery of healthcare, healthcare organizations are investing in effectiveness outcomes research to improve patient outcomes. However, the uptake and implementation of evidence-based clinical practice guidelines are influenced by contextual factors such as leadership support and use of change champions [1–3] and personnel perceptions of patient safety [4]. Within acute care settings, nurses’ perceptions of patient safety cultures and attitudes towards new practice guidelines are very critical for predicting the use of research evidence and new guidelines [5, 6]. What is known about nurses’ perceptions of patient safety culture has been reviewed in comparison with interdisciplinary team members [7–9] and across ranks such as staff nurses versus nurse managers [10]. Yet, staff nurses are not a homogenous group. In most acute care settings for each nursing unit, the management of each shift is designated to a nurse who then leads other staff nurses on that shift. The shift-by-shift leaders may be known as charge nurses, or assistant nurse managers [11, 12] and are often used as champions for change [13, 14]. Since nurses are very pivotal to the implementation of safety guidelines, it is critical to have a deeper understanding of how these two groups of nurses, charge and noncharge nurses, perceive patient safety cultures. The purpose of this paper was to compare the perceptions of nursing units’ safety culture between charge nurses and staff nurses. For this study, the charge nurse is defined as a frontline nursing unit leader who makes shift-by-shift decisions about staffing, personnel and unexpected events that impact patient care [15]. In
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