Punitive culture perceived by health professionals in intensive care units: integrative review

Abstract

Objective: To analyze in the literature health professionals’ perception of punitive culture in Intensive Care Units. Method: integrative literature review, based on articles published between 2010 and 2020 on the dimension of culture “Non-punitive responses to error” of the Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture questionnaire. Data collection occurred in August 2020 at the databases: LILACS and MEDLINE. Units with punitive culture were considered when the score of positive responses was ≤ 50 %. Results: 281 studies were found, of which 11 were considered eligible. There was a prevalence of studies conducted in units for adult care (45,45%). All studies presented fragility of the dimension “Non-punitive responses to error”, ranging from 17.50% to 49.34% of positive responses. Conclusion: the punitive culture is strongly present in the perception of professionals from critical units, which demands actions to reverse this perception and migrate to fair culture.