Background: International patient's safety strategies advocate measuring safety culture as a
strategy to improve patient's safety. Safety culture is the set of values, beliefs, and norms
about what is important, how to behave, and what attitudes are appropriate when it comes to
patient safety in a workgroup. Aim: To identify health nurses and physicians' perception
toward patient safety culture. Setting: All inpatients and outpatients units at Damanhour
National Medical Institute (n=18). Subjects: 50 Professional nurses, 200 technical nurses and
100 physicians. Tool: Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture (HSPSC) was used. The
tool contains 42 items that measure 12 dimensions each dimension includes 3 or 4 survey
items. Results: The dimension "teamwork within units" received the highest mean percent
score for nurses (80.3±10.4) and physicians (74.0±12.7), while, "handoffs and transitions"
dimension received the lowest mean percent score for nurses (58.9±13.5). As for physicians,
the lowest mean percent score was for “team work across units" with a score of (61.6±10.2).
Regarding nurses' educational qualification, nursing staff differed significantly in their
perception to the overall patient safety culture (p=0.029). Regarding the physicians, there
were significant differences in their perception of the overall patient safety culture as for age
groups (p=0.004), their working hours (p=0.014), their years of experience in hospital
(p=0.000) and years of experience in unit (p=0.000). Conclusion: The study concluded that
the dimension "teamwork within units" received the highest mean percent score for nurses
and physicians, while "handoffs and transitions" dimension received the lowest mean percent
score for nurses. As for physicians, the lowest mean percent score was for “team work across
units". Recommendations: A training program for nurses about appropriate patient handoff
and transfer, for physicians about the importance of team work and how to establish an
effective team.