title: Exploring Canadians' and Europeans' Health Care Professionals' Perception of Biological Risks, Patient Safety, and Professionals' Safety Practices.
abstract: Patient safety has become a worldwide concern in relation to infectious diseases (Ebola/severe acute respiratory syndrome/flu). During the pandemic, different sanitary responses were documented between Europe and North America in terms of vaccination and compliance with infection prevention and control measures. The purpose of this study was to explore the health care professionals' perceptions of biological risks, patient safety, and their practices in European and Canadian health care facilities. A qualitative-descriptive design was used to explore the perceptions of biological risks and patient safety practices among health care professionals in 3 different facilities. Interviews (n = 39) were conducted with health care professionals in Canada and Europe. The thematic analysis pinpointed 3 main themes: risk and infectious disease, patient safety, and occupational health and safety. These themes fit within safety cultures described by participants: individual culture, blame culture, and collaborative culture. The preventive terminology used in the European health care facility focuses on hospital hygiene from the perspective of environmental risk (individual culture). In Canadian health care facilities, the focus was on risk management for infection prevention either from a punitive perspective (blame culture) or from a collaborative perspective (collaborative culture). This intercultural dialogue described the contextual realities on different continents regarding the perceptions of health care professionals about risks and infections.
authors.affiliation: Author Affiliations: Université de Montréal Faculty of Nursing, Montreal, Quebec, Canada (Dr L. Bernard); ACOS Operations and Training, Belgian Defence, Brussels, Belgium (Dr A. Bernard); and Ingram School of Nursing and McGill University Health Centre, Montreal, Quebec, Canada (Drs Biron and Lavoie-Tremblay).
authors.forename: Laurence
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Bernard
authors.forename: Agnès
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bernard
authors.forename: Alain
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Biron
authors.forename: Mélanie
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Lavoie-Tremblay
mesh_terms: D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D002170:Canada; D006282:Health Personnel; D006801:Humans; D061214:Patient Safety; D011364:Professional Practice; D012306:Risk