There are three sections to the toolkit:

1. Incident management—the actions that follow patient safety incidents (including near misses)
2. Patient safety management—the actions that help to proactively anticipate patient safety incidents and prevent them from occurring
3. System factors—the factors that shape and are shaped by patient safety and incident management (legislation, policies, culture, people, processes and resources).

• What happened?

• How and why it happened?

• What can be done to reduce the likelihood of recurrence and make care safer?

• What was learned?

• Contribute to a culture of patient safety – a commitment to applying core patient safety knowledge, skills and attitudes to everyday work.
• Work in teams for patient safety – working within interprofessional teams to optimise patient safety and quality of care.
• Communicate effectively for patient safety – promoting patient safety through effective healthcare communication.
• Manage safety risks – anticipating, recognising and managing situations that place patients at risk.
• Optimise human and environmental factors – managing the relationship between individual and environmental characteristics in order to optimise patient safety.
• Recognise, respond to and disclose adverse events – recognising the occurrence of an adverse event or close call and responding effectively to mitigate harm to the patient, ensure disclosure and prevent recurrence.

• patients and families interested in how to partner in their own care to ensure safety
• patient partners interested in how to help improve patient safety
• providers interested in creating collaborative care relationships with patients and families
• managers and leaders responsible for patient engagement, patient safety, and/or quality improvement
• anyone else interested in partnering with patients to develop care programs and systems.

While the guide focuses primarily on patient safety, many engagement practices apply to other areas, including quality, research, and education. The guide is designed to support patient engagement in any healthcare sector.

• Has patient care been safe in the past?
• Are our clinical systems and processes reliable?
• Is our care safe now?
• Will our care be safe in the future?
• Are we responding and improving?

• Patients and their families shift to advocate for their healthcare safety.
• Healthcare providers shift to prioritise safety when caring for patients.
• Leaders in healthcare organisations shift to create a positive patient safety culture.

SHIFT to Safety promotes a positive, safe healthcare experience for patients, providers, and leaders in healthcare organisations. The  tools and resources empower everyone to understand how to make safety a priority while navigating the healthcare system.

Includes a short video explaining SHIFT to Safety.