Recently an enduring discussion evolved on Twitter on why safety culture is important for patient safety. My reaction, of course, was: it isn’t. Let me explain why.
I think it is possible to address safety without addressing safety culture. Or, rather, to focus on actions that will improve both safety performance and safety culture (as a by-product) at the same time. In this blog I propose some of these actions – showing how to create an understanding of how work is (actually) done (rather than what it says on paper), seeing what makes it difficult and identifying what resources are missing. If we address these challenges, then surely we will be able to improve safety and safety culture will follow naturally.
Recently an enduring discussion evolved on Twitter on why safety culture is important for patient safety. My reaction, of course, was: it isn’t. Let me explain why. I think it is possible to address safety without addressing safety culture. Or, rather, to focus on actions that will improve both safety performance and safety culture (as a by-product) at the same time. In this blog I propose some of these actions – showing how to create an understanding of how work is (actually) done (rather than what it says on paper), seeing what makes it difficult and identifying what resources are missing. If we address these challenges, then surely we will be able to improve safety and safety culture will follow naturally.
