Making sense of patient safety through Cultural-Historical Activity Theory and complexity modeling (June 2024)

Summary

This article in the Journal of Patient Safety argues that embedding patient safety initiatives is not just about establishing linear protocols, but changing the habits of complex organisations, beginning at the level of the clinical team. They highlight that Safety II is drawing attention to the complexity in healthcare systems and outline the use of Cultural-Historical Activity Theory (CHAT) as a way to align learning theory and complexity theory as a framework for patient safety initiatives.