Abstract:

Since quality in health services mainly focuses on the improvement of human health, this field should be well learned, assimilated by health professionals and encouraged to take part in such activities. The general knowledge level of health professionals about quality, their views on minimum standards, their attitudes towards the necessity of quality practices and their willingness to participate in these practices are important in determining their quality literacy. This research is a methodological study to develop a quality literacy scale in health and is also a descriptive study that investigates the differences according to demographic variables by determining the quality literacy levels of health workers. The sample of the research is Yozgat Bozok University Medical Faculty Hospital employees. As a result of the Explanatory Factor Analysis applied to the scale consisting of 30 items, 4 factors with an eigenvalue greater than 1 were obtained. Confirmatory Factor Analysis was applied to evaluate the construct validity of the scale, and goodness of fit values were reached within the reference range. The criterion validity of the scale was confirmed by performing a correlation analysis between this scale and the Healthcare Professionals' Quality Perception Scale. With the scale whose validity and reliability were verified, the differences in the quality literacy of health workers according to demographic variables were investigated. In the analysis of variance, significant differences were found between the quality literacy of health workers and only the variables of age, working year and income status. By using this scale, awareness of health professionals about the meaning of quality and minimum quality standards in health services, their attitudes towards quality requirements and their willingness to participate in quality management processes can be measured. The findings can guide the quality studies of health managers.

Keywords: