Perception of the Patient Safety Risk Factors and Safety Management by Nurses in Emergency Service, Hospitals*

Purpose: This was a descriptive research study to examine the patient safety risk factors and the level of safety management of nurses in emergency service, hospitals and to analyze the relationship between the two factors. Method: Data for analysis were collected from 232 nurses in emergency service, hospitals in Busan and Gyeongnam from July 30 to September 7, 2013. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test, one-way ANOVA, and Pearson correlation coefficients. Results: Therapeutic agents showed the highest risk level. The prevention of transfusion errors showed the highest performance. As the nurses were working in regional emergency medical centers and received education more than 7 sessions on patient safety, they readily recognized the riskiness of the safety risk factors. In addition, as the nurses were older than 40, married, having more education about safety and understood the incident report registration system well, they performed safety management better. There were significant correlations between perception of the patient safety risk factors and performance for safety management. Conclusion: Nurses in emergency service, hospitals should try to improve safety management to reduce the risk factors shown to be higher based on the results and ensure the patien