• Improving Health Professional Services: Applying the Theory of Reasoned Action to Examine Determinants of Intention to Report Patient Safety Events

Abstract

Patient safety is a crucial quality indicator in health professional services. The perspective of individual behavior has seldom been adopted in previous studies when addressing the determinants for intention of nurses to report patient safety events (events in which patient health is harmed). Additionally, most previous works do not distinguish between the intention of reporting self-related events and that of reporting others-related events. Therefore, this study discusses the determinants of the intention to report self-related and others-related patient safety events, and explains it in terms of the theory of reasoned action. Analytical results indicate that professional commitment is positively linked to the intention to report self-related events. The perceived effect of reporting, honesty and obeying rules are positively related to both the intention to report self-related and others-related events. This study employs the theory of reasoned action to propose four determinants of intention to report, thus increasing the knowledge of service science, and providing insights for health professional service managers.

Keywords: Patient safety, intention to report, health professional serves, theory of reasoned action