Organizational readiness to change as a leverage point for improving safety: a national nursing home survey (20 August 2021)

Summary

A stronger safety climate in nursing homes may reduce avoidable adverse events. Yet efforts to strengthen safety climate may fail if nursing homes are not ready to change. To inform improvement efforts, Quach et al. examined the link between organisational readiness to change and safety climate.

They found that organisational readiness to change predicted safety climate. Safety climate initiatives that address readiness to change among frontline staff and managers may be more likely to succeed and eventually increase resident safety.

Content

Findings:

• The strong associations between organizational readiness to change and safety climate in nursing homes have the following implications for practice and research:
• Safety climate interventions should first assess and address staff and system readiness to change.
• Readiness to change assessments and safety climate interventions may also need repeating as staff turnover brings in new staff and may change these dynamics.
• Whether staff skills and knowledge moderate the association of readiness to change and safety climate should also be examined in future research. Staff members willing to change need adequate skills/knowledge to make safety-related change. For example, senior managers making walk rounds may need training in active listening for these rounds to be effective while new direct care personnel may lack knowledge of warning signs related to resident safety.