Explain The Term ' Safety Culture '

The healthcare setting should be a safe environment. By employing the four characteristics of a culture of safety an employer can maintain high employee satisfaction thereby improving retention. People are held responsible for their behavior in this culture but "a distinction is made between errors that result from poor decision making and those that result from system flaws." ("What are the," 2011) The four characteristics are psychological safety, active leadership, transparency and fairness.

“Organizations with a positive safety culture are characterized by communications founded on mutual trust, by shared perceptions of the importance of safety and by confidence in the efficacy of preventive measures” (Stavrianopoulos, 2012, pg, 202). Communication and teamwork go hand and hand. An effective teamwork involves effective communication. No communication can lead to possible medical errors, whether the failure to communicate comes from the patient to the nurse or between the health care providers. Evidence based care is another factor which aids in safety. “Healthcare organizations that demonstrate evidence-based best practices, including standardized processes, protocols, checklists, and guidelines, are considered to exhibit a culture of safety” (Stavrianopoulos, 2012, pg, 203). Providing better safety means learning from the past mistakes. By understanding the root of the issue, which would then lead to learning how to improve the situation. Educational training about safety should be available for medical staff to attend and learn if there was to be any doubt in he or she’s mind. Patient centered care is another factor in providing safety. It focuses on the patient and their family. Helping patient’s and family be more active in the care of the health plan can lead to safer and better

Effective management structures and preparations are set in place to distribute the policy. The staff are well motivated and are empowered to work safely making sure that they look after their long-term health and not just avoiding small accidents. There are shared common understandings of the businesses values, visions and beliefs. If you have a positive health and safety culture you will know because you will see the visible and active leadership playing a role by the senior

First is collective mindfulness. These means everyone within is expected to understand that issues may arise that can cause serious safety concerns. Safety is everyone’s responsibility as well as collective and shared responsibility (Ratwani, Hettinger and Fairbanks, 2014, p. 3). Second factor is dealing with reporting. There are processes in place that will report safety issues if one arises. The organization makes sure that the reports are easily accessible and useable as well as followed-up with. Lastly, is creating a culture that understands mistakes happen. Staff may not go around blaming others when something is interrupted, it is a team and events take place when humans are involved. This type of culture helps individuals know there are processes in place, provided by leadership to handle these type of serious safety events (Ratwani, Hettinger and Fairbanks, 2014). A major role to implement patient safety is by the use of health IT

From a preliminary review of the literature, it appears a growth mindset is a concept related to the psychology and has direct ties to the implementation of safety programs. As will be discussed

The whole idea of safety culture did not start inside of healthcare. Organizations and businesses continuously lowered the amount of mistakes that take place in the workplace without making it extremely difficult or complex to do so. They made it priority to provide safety by all means. This establishes a culture a safety that all

In a strong safety culture, organization has an insistent commitment to safety and do no harm. The safety culture of an organization is the product of individual and group beliefs, values, attitudes, perceptions, competencies, and patterns of behavior that determine the organization’s commitment to quality and patient safety. In safety culture, staff and leaders value transparency, accountability and mutual respect. Behaviors that challenge a culture of safety are not acceptable and need to be reported. In a safety culture, leaders should ensure that intimidating or unprofessional behaviors within the profession are addressed and reported. They need to educate staff and hold them accountable for their professional behavior. This includes the adoption and promotion of a code of conduct that defines acceptable behavior as well as behaviors that undermine a culture of safety. Intimidating and disrespectful behaviors interrupt the culture of safety and inhibit communication, collaboration and teamwork, which is obligatory for safe and highly reliable patient care (Jointcommission.org,

Communicating and reporting are the first steps to change and improving our Safety Culture. Let’s keep moving the needle of Safety awareness in the right direction.

Safety culture is the enduring value and priority placed on worker and public safety by everyone in every group at every level of an organization. It refers to the extent to which individuals and groups will commit to personal responsibility for safety, act to preserve, enhance and communicate safety concerns, strive to actively learn, adapt and modify (both individual and organizational) behavior based on lessons learned from mistakes, and be rewarded in a manner consistent with these values (Wiegmann et al., 2002: 8)

Healthcare organizations endeavor to enhance patient safety, although culture changes cannot be enforced without identifying and working within the local culture which could either aid in setting an acceptable perspective or persistently encourage harmful attitudes (Curtin, 2011, p. 44). Hence, establishing a safety culture is the result of one’s and the organization’s principles, point-of-views, abilities, understanding, and behavioral patterns that dictate the obligation to the health and safety regulation of an organization. Furthermore, the safety culture of an organization consists of the following features: a leadership that recognizes a high-risk setting; partnership, application of proven approach, open communication, continuous education,

A culture of Safety has been proposed as an effective safety and essential core mechanism appropriate patient care. It is involved in effective teamwork, reduced side effects, as well as continuous learning, behavior based safety reporting errors. A number of research reports have established the connection between culture and safety management practices, such as errors. Display and side effects of the study and reduce mortality, including other patient safety culture has found associations between patient outcomes (Weaver, Dy, Lubomski, 2011). The number of tools can be used to assess the health safety culture within the organization. The most widely used in medical research and patient safety culture assessment developed by the Agency for

As the safety field has evolved, there is a growing recognition of the role that organizational leadership plays in prioritizing safety, through actions such as establishing a culture of safety. It has been suggested that leadership is defined as one of the most significant facilitators for establishing and promoting a culture of safety. 1 Research and practice from the Center for Creative Leadership suggests that collective leadership is more effective in creating direction, alignment and commitment, particularly in organizations that face challenges of uncertainty and complexity.2 Moreover, Hospital managers should develop and apply appropriate policies and strategies to reduce occupational stress turnover intention and consequently improve patient safety.3 However, without understanding the culture within an organization, it is difficult to improve stems and ensure that robust quality and patient safety processes are implemented effectively.

Today there are multiple motives for employing a place of work hazard free mindset work culture. Ultimately the objective for a successful, productive and safe place of work should be liberated from exposure to hazards that place customers and employees at risk. There are many convincing motivations for establishing an in-work place safety plan, however the biggest motivator to companies are for reasons of conformity to directives from federal, state, and local governing agencies. Undesirable press, and penalties that inevitably happen without a safety plan, will cost business, create loss of human capital and force workers compensation insurance premiums to rise.

To create a company culture that focuses on safety, start by training your employees on safety. Additionally, reinforce your safety-first culture by rewarding employees who have fewer

It is important it have a written work Health and Safety Policy for the organizations and businesses which have management systems. The Work Health and Safety Regulation 2011 addresses Major Hazard Facilities in Regulation 558 and Schedule 17(1.2) and requires that the Safety Management System includes a Safety Policy, including the operator’s broad aims in relation to the safe operation of the major hazard facility, and that the safety policy must include and express commitment to ongoing improvement of all aspects of the safety management system. A Work Health and Safety Policy is an explicit statement of business commitment to work health and safety. It will include a statement outlining the importance which is placed on work health and safety and how it is to be implemented.