Have you witnessed poor care, reported an incident but you weren't heard or felt unsafe at work?

Do you have the courage to speak up?

Why should we need 'courage' to speak up at work?

@alisonleary brought to our attention a recently published book 'Courage in Health Care: A Necessary Virtue or a  Warning Sign.'

https://www.pslhub.org/learn/miscellaneous/suggested-resources/recommended-books-and-literature/courage-in-healthcare-a-necessary-virtue-or-warning-sign-by-shibley-rahman-and-rebecca-myers-r750/

 

I once raised with a very senior leader that our approach to managing complaints wasn't leading to learning or action to improve care. I was admonished and clearly told (the words are embedded in my brain) that 'we are managing complaints not doing patient safety.' At that point I knew I had to leave the organisation and that despite best endeavours, a resistant and closed-minded leader would not deliver the change that was written in the organisational strategy. On the scale of courage, it's pretty low compared to clinicians who whistleblow but it had a profound effect on me. From that day onwards I was effectively hounded out of the organisation for challenging 'the system.' Things worked out in the end but it was an interesting change in career that I hadn't planned.

How much worse it must be when raising concerns/making suggestions for improvement with your employer challenges your job, future career and livelihood.

I wonder how many staff would 'speak up' and share their views if they felt safe to do so and confident that their insights would listened to and acted upon. 1% of staff, 5%, 20%, more? What do people think?

Here is a good freely-available study on speaking up: 

https://www.pslhub.org/learn/culture/a-qualitative-study-of-speaking-out-about-patient-safety-concerns-in-intensive-care-units-r405/