Nurses’ Perceptions of Clinical Governance Climate

Abstract

Background: Clinical governance climate is a governance approach that aims at supporting communication and interaction, minimizing errors, and continually improving and developing service process in organizations. Methods: The study population was composed of 1845 nurses working at public, university, and private hospitals in Trabzon Province. The sample was composed of 315 nurses recruited using a stratified sampling method. Data were collected using Information Request Form and Clinical Governance Climate Questionnaire. Results: According to the nurses, the clinical governance climate score of hospitals was 182.62 ± 28.32 (min = 60, max = 300). In the study, it was found that the average total score and the sub-scale scores of the clinical governance climate of those nurses who were (1) aged ≤25 years and ≥36 years; (2) were female; (3) worked in managerial positions; (4) chose the clinical service where they were employed willingly; (5) were satisfied with the clinical service, nursing profession, and managers; (6) cared for 11-20 patients in a shift, knew what clinical governance was; and (7) joined trainings/meetings about clinical governance were significantly and statistically different as compared to other nurses (P < .05). Conclusion: Nurses regarded and assessed the clinical governance climate of the hospitals where they worked as moderate. As a result of the study, it was recommended that educations and trainings about clinical governance climate be provided to nurses; interventions that will maximize their satisfaction be made; they be given the chance to choose the clinical servicers where they will work; and the number of patients be kept balanced.