Surgical leadership in a culture of safety: An inter-professional study of metrics and tools for improving clinical practice (4 September 2023)

Summary

Leadership in a safety culture environment is essential in avoiding patient harm. However, leadership in surgery is not routinely taught or assessed. This study aimed to identify a framework, metrics and tools to improve surgical leadership and safety outcomes. It identified three areas of leadership needed to build a culture of safety in surgery:

1. Control risk (risk management)
2. Drive progress (opportunity management)
3. Rally support for the mission (people management)

A leadership assessment tool (SLAM) was developed to provide objective metrics of surgical leadership behaviours based on nine key performance indicators.

Content