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Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ)3

Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ) Test

Understand your team’s patient safety climate and attitudes in about 8 minutes. Get clear, actionable insights to strengthen teamwork, communication, and safety practices across your unit.

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Questions: 418 minutes

08:30

October 2, 2025

October 2, 2025
Material has been updated

October 2, 2025
Material has been published

23,658 views

2,327 completions

1,990 likes

Verified by Daniel Hall

Psychologist with 25 years of experience

Scale Explorer

How the Scales are Structured

example score

56/205

Safety Attitudes (SA)

Measures staff’s overall perception of and commitment to patient safety principles and safety culture within the organization.

Needs improvement

Developing

Strong

41 – 95: Needs improvement | 96 – 150: Developing | 151 – 205: Strong

A score of 56 falls in the “Needs improvement” range, indicating a generally less positive safety attitude and potential gaps in perceived safety culture and adherence to safety principles.

example score

25/30

Teamwork Climate (TC)

Assesses the degree of support, collaboration, and mutual assistance within the team.

Needs improvement

Adequate

Strong

6 – 16: Needs improvement | 17 – 23: Adequate | 24 – 30: Strong

A score of 25 falls in the Strong range, suggesting a generally cohesive team climate with effective cooperation and mutual support.

example score

21/35

Safety Climate (SC)

Assesses how positively staff perceive workplace safety, including trust in safety measures and procedures.

Low

Moderate

High

7 – 16: Low | 17 – 25: Moderate | 26 – 35: High

A score of 21 falls in the Moderate range, suggesting mixed perceptions of workplace safety and only partial confidence in current safety practices.

example score

11/25

Job Satisfaction (JS)

Measures how satisfied employees are with their job, working conditions, and professional fulfillment.

Low

Moderate

High

5 – 12: Low | 13 – 19: Moderate | 20 – 25: High

A score of 11 falls in the Low range, indicating comparatively reduced job satisfaction and less positive perceptions of work and working conditions.

example score

15/20

Stress Recognition (SR)

Measures how well staff recognize the impact of stress on their work and regulate it in day-to-day clinical practice.

Low

Moderate

High

4 – 9: Low | 10 – 15: Moderate | 16 – 20: High

A score of 15 falls in the Moderate range, suggesting a generally adequate ability to notice stress effects and use basic strategies to manage them, with room to strengthen consistency under pressure.

example score

13/25

Perceptions of Unit Management (PoUM)

Measures staff perceptions of how supportive and competent department management is regarding patient safety.

Low confidence

Mixed confidence

High confidence

5 – 14: Low confidence | 15 – 19: Mixed confidence | 20 – 25: High confidence

A score of 13 falls in the Low confidence range, suggesting limited perceived support and involvement of department management in safety issues.

example score

13/25

Perceptions of Hospital Management (PoHM)

Measures how positively staff perceive clinic management decisions and policies related to maintaining patient safety.

Low

Moderate

High

5 – 11: Low | 12 – 18: Moderate | 19 – 25: High

A score of 13 falls in the Moderate range, suggesting a mixed but generally acceptable view of management’s safety-related actions with room for improvement.

example score

16/20

Working Conditions (WC)

Assesses staff satisfaction with working conditions, including equipment adequacy, comfort, and workplace safety.

Needs improvement

Adequate

Strong

4 – 10: Needs improvement | 11 – 15: Adequate | 16 – 20: Strong

A score of 16 falls in the Strong range, indicating generally positive perceptions of equipment, comfort, and workplace safety conditions.

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DATA-BASED USER COHORTS

Who Usually Takes This Test?

Hospital and clinic managers

41%OF USERS

Leaders and quality managers use it to gauge the safety culture, spot weak points in processes, and prioritize improvements.

Doctors and nurses

36%OF USERS

Clinical staff take it to share how safe and supported they feel at work and where teamwork or communication breaks down.

Patient safety specialists

23%OF USERS

Risk, compliance, and safety officers use it to monitor safety climate over time and evaluate the impact of training or policy changes.

BASED ON AGGREGATED, ANONYMIZED DATA FROM TENS OF THOUSANDS OF FREUDLY USERS.

Benchmarking

See How You Compare

Once you complete the test, your results are compared with real-world data from people in your country.
Below is a preview of how scores are typically distributed across each scale.

Attitude Towards Safety (ATS)

Average

145

Normal range

122.5 — 167.5

min.

max.

205

This curve shows how scores are typically distributed.
Once you complete the test, your result will appear on the scale so you can see how you compare.

Teamwork Atmosphere (TA)

Average

16.4

Normal range

12.4 — 20.4

min.

max.

This curve shows how scores are typically distributed.
Once you complete the test, your result will appear on the scale so you can see how you compare.

Atmosphere of Safety (AoS)

Average

21.7

Normal range

17.3 — 26

min.

max.

This curve shows how scores are typically distributed.
Once you complete the test, your result will appear on the scale so you can see how you compare.

Job Satisfaction (JS)

Average

18.6

Normal range

15.1 — 22.1

min.

max.

This curve shows how scores are typically distributed.
Once you complete the test, your result will appear on the scale so you can see how you compare.

Stress Recognition (SR)

Average

Normal range

8.1 — 14

min.

max.

This curve shows how scores are typically distributed.
Once you complete the test, your result will appear on the scale so you can see how you compare.

Perception of department management (Podm)

Average

11.7

Normal range

8 — 15.5

min.

max.

This curve shows how scores are typically distributed.
Once you complete the test, your result will appear on the scale so you can see how you compare.

Perception of Clinic Management (PoCM)

Average

Normal range

14.5 — 19.5

min.

max.

This curve shows how scores are typically distributed.
Once you complete the test, your result will appear on the scale so you can see how you compare.

Working Conditions (WC)

Average

12.9

Normal range

10 — 15.8

min.

max.

This curve shows how scores are typically distributed.
Once you complete the test, your result will appear on the scale so you can see how you compare.

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SAMPLE QUESTIONS

Example Questions From the Test

You are presented with a set of questions, each with multiple response options. Select the option you prefer based on your work experience in the unit where you spend most of your working time at the time of completing this questionnaire. When choosing a response option, rely on your first impression. For the purposes of this questionnaire, “unit supervisor” refers to: for nursing staff, the charge nurse; for physicians, the unit head; and for non-clinical staff, the department manager. For the purposes of this questionnaire, “clinic leadership” refers to: the chief medical officer, deputy chief medical officers, the chief nursing officer, and similar positions.

- Strongly disagree
- Disagree somewhat
- Neutral
- Agree somewhat
- Strongly agree
- Strongly disagree
- Disagree somewhat
- Neutral
- Agree somewhat
- Strongly agree
- Strongly disagree
- Disagree
- Neither agree nor disagree
- Agree
- Strongly agree

These are 3 of the 41 real questions — the rest appear in the test. No sign-up needed to start.

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WHAT THE TEST MEASURES

About This Assessment

Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ) Test - Symptoms and Signs

security

medical staff

This measure is used to assess staff perceptions of safety-related climate and teamwork within health care settings. The Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ) provides a structured way to identify strengths and areas for improvement in organizational attitudes linked to patient safety.

It consists of 41 items and typically takes about 8 minutes to complete. Items are presented as statements rated by respondents to characterize aspects of safety culture, including communication practices and perceived support for safe care. The Safety Attitudes Questionnaire (SAQ) is commonly used for quality improvement efforts, such as tracking change over time and informing targeted interventions. Original development is attributed to John B. Sexton and Robert L. Helmreich.

Author: John B. Sexton, Robert L. Helmreich

Literature: Edmondson, A. C. Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Administrative Science Quarterly. 1999.; Flin, R., Burns, C., Mearns, K., Yule, S., & Robertson, E. Measuring safety climate in health care. Quality & Safety in Health Care. 2006.; Sexton, J. B., Helmreich, R. L., Neilands, T. B., Rowan, K., Vella, K., Boyden, J., Roberts, P. R., & Thomas, E. J. The Safety Attitudes Questionnaire: psychometric properties, benchmarking data, and emerging research. BMC Health Services Research. 2006.