Organisational Support, Interprofessional Collaboration and Patient Safety Perceptions Among Healthcare Professionals in Saudi Hospitals
Romeo Jr Mostoles, Abdulhafith AlharbiBackground
Organisational support and interprofessional collaboration (IPC) are each linked to patient safety (PS) culture, but the pathway connecting them has rarely been examined in Saudi Arabia, where hospitals are undergoing rapid workforce and structural transformation.
Aims
To examine the associations among perceived organisational support (POS), IPC and patient safety perceptions (PSP) among healthcare professionals in Saudi hospitals, and to test whether IPC mediates the association between organisational support and PSP.
Method
A cross‐sectional correlational study was conducted in six hospitals (five government, one private) in the Eastern and Northern regions of Saudi Arabia between 1 August and 31 October 2025. Hospital coordinators invited all eligible clinical staff through institutional channels, and 1328 healthcare professionals completed an anonymous online survey comprising the POS Scale, the 23‐item AITCS‐II (practitioner version) and the 33‐item Patient Safety Questionnaire from the WHO Patient Safety Curriculum Guide. Data were analysed with Pearson correlations and a bootstrapped single‐mediator path model in AMOS (5000 bias‐corrected [BC] resamples).
Result
Organisational support was positively associated with IPC ( β = 0.31, p < 0.001) and with PSP ( β = 0.14, p < 0.001), whereas collaboration was negatively associated with PSP ( β = −0.15, p < 0.001). The indirect association through collaboration was small and negative ( β = −0.05, 95% CI [–0.07, −0.02]), indicating inconsistent (competitive) mediation; the total association remained positive but modest ( β = 0.09, p < 0.001).
Conclusion
POS is directly associated with more favourable PSP, but this association is partly offset by a small negative association operating through collaboration. Because the design is cross‐sectional and all constructs were self‐reported, the mechanisms underlying this pattern remain untested.
Implications For Nursing Management
Nurse managers should strengthen visible organisational support (resources, recognition, responsive leadership) while recognising that increasing the frequency of interprofessional contact alone may not improve safety perceptions. Attention to the quality of collaborative processes, together with routine assessment of team climate and safety perceptions, offers a more targeted approach than expanding collaboration per se.