Why you should read this article:

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To appreciate the importance of patient safety incident reporting practices

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To understand that optimal patient safety incident reporting practices require effective leadership behaviours

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To be aware of the need for a positive organisational culture to improve incident reporting practices

Background: Patient safety is a priority for all healthcare organisations. Enhancing patient safety incident reporting practices requires effective leadership behaviours at all levels in healthcare organisations.

Aim: To explore nurses’ perceptions of the influence of nurse managers’ leadership behaviours and organisational culture on patient safety incident reporting practices.

Method: A descriptive, cross-sectional, correlational design was adopted with a convenience sample of 325 nurses from 15 Jordanian hospitals.

Results: Respondents had positive perceptions of their nurse managers’ leadership behaviours and organisational culture. There was a significant positive relationship between leadership behaviours and organisational culture (r=0.423, P0.001) and between leadership behaviours and actual incident-reporting practices (r=0.131, P0.001). Additionally, there was a significant positive relationship between organisational culture and incident-reporting practices (r=0.250, P0.001).

Conclusion: Healthcare organisations must develop leaders who will foster a supportive and just culture that will enhance nurses’ practice with regards to reporting patient safety incidents.