Top 10 patient safety tips for surgical trainees (Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh)

Summary

We asked the Patient Safety Group (PSG) of The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh (RCSEd) to draw up their top 10 patient safety tips for surgical trainees.

See also:

• Safety in surgery series
• Top 10 tips for surgical safety: ‘Think Safety, think SEIPS’
• Top 10 priorities for patient safety in surgery

Content

1.  Listen to the patient and what matters to them; share decisions with them. Encourage the patient to be in control of their care; they only have to consider their own care and will not be lost to follow up.
    
2. Trust your instincts; always speak up if you think something is not right.
    
3.  Never be afraid to ask for help if you need it.
    
4.  Look after yourself and your team; there can be no patient safety without team safety.
    
5. Foster good team working; recognise and respect the value of all team members; take account of everyone’s strengths and weaknesses.
    
6. Take responsibility for the safety of your patients; patient safety is everyone’s responsibility, not just that of the quality improvement team.
    
7. Help design systems that make it easier for you to do the right thing.
    
8. Do not make assumptions. Work as imagined is not the same as work done; make sure you always test any process in practice and confirm that what you think is the case is actually happening. Regularly audit your practice.
    
9. Celebrate good practice and share your experiences.
    
10. Take on board feedback and learn from it; be willing to change practice. When outcomes are not as expected, openly discuss and learn, to enable you and your team to reduce the risk of the same thing happening again.