Background: One of the most important strategies for determining and improving patient safety in health institutions is creating a patient safety culture. Little is known about the perception towards patient safety culture among operating room nursing in Turkish setting. Objectives: To determine the level of patient safety culture among nurses who play an active role in the operating rooms in Turkey.

Methodology: This study was designed as a descriptive study. The study included 82 nurses who were actively working and had not taken time-off between June and September 2014.“Demographics Characteristics Form” and “Patient Safety Culture Scale (PSCS)” were used to collect the related data. The data were evaluated using descriptive statistics, the t test for independent groups, the Mann Whitney U test and the Kruskal–Wallis variance analysis.

Results: Mean age of the nurses who participated in the study was 35.19±6.83. 84.1% of the nurses had a bachelor degree. Mean number of years worked in the same institution was 11.07±7.44. 58.5% of the nurses had patient safety training and 42.7% had quality training. Mean PSCS score of the nurses was 2.38±0.36. The highest mean score was of staff behavior (2.53±0.40), while the lowest was of care environment (2.19±0.49). Conclusion: Although several training programs had been conducted, this study demonstrated that the level of patient safety culture and its components were slightly above moderate, but it is not yet at the desired level. Nurses should continue to take responsibility for patient safety in their operating rooms by improving their knowledge base and incorporating it into their daily work lives. Patient safety should be addressed in detail in the in-service training programs of hospitals.