Abstract
OBJECTIVE
To identify the patient safety culture in intensive care units.
METHOD
This qualitative, exploratory-descriptive study was conducted with five physicians, five nurses and 24 nursing technicians working in the intensive care units of two hospitals in the South of Brazil: one public and one philanthropic. Semi-structured interviews were held in September and October 2016 and analyzed using discursive textual analysis.
RESULTS
Two categories emerged: Perception of error and Error management.
CONCLUSION
The professionals acknowledge the existence of errors in health care and assign their occurrence to individual failures and failures accruing from the organizational system but support a non-punitive culture of safety and encourage collective learning.
Keywords:
Nursing; Patient safety; Organizational culture; Intensive care units