Safety climate in the operating room: Translation, validation and application of the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire

Background: Safety climate assessment is increasingly recognized as an important factor in healthcare quality improvement, especially in operating rooms (OR). One of the most commonly used and rigorously validated tools to measure safety culture is the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ). This study presents the validation of the Operating Room Version of the SAQ (SAQ-OR) for use in Portuguese Hospitals. The psychometric properties of the translated questionnaire are also presented. Methods: The original English version of the SAQ-OR was translated and adapted to the Portuguese setting by forward–backward translation method and applied in a central public hospital. Scale psychometrics were analyzed using Cronbach’s alpha and inter-correlations