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Showing results for tags 'Psychological safety'.
Found 192 results
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Content ArticleWhile the benefits of psychological safety are well established, a new survey suggests how leaders, by developing specific skills, can create a safer and higher-performance work environment.
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Content ArticleSession recordings from the ISQua 'Hospital Workers' Wellbeing Matters' conference.
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Content ArticleThis guide aims to help staff and services understand the impact of psychological trauma on women in the perinatal period and respond in a sensitive and compassionate way. It aims to support staff to ensure they ‘do no harm’ through care delivery that, without thought or intention, could retraumatise individuals. This includes examples of how to: recognise and understand the impact of psychological trauma and how experiences may present during the perinatal period respond to disclosures and tailor care to needs of women and families so that services do not retraumatise individuals best support staff working in maternity and mental health services, acknowledging the effects of vicarious trauma and that staff may have their own experiences of trauma, which could impact on their capacity to deliver trauma-informed care.
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Content Article
It has become imperative that we discuss the issue of mental health in doctors and other healthcare staff. The mental wellbeing of a healthcare staff forms the bedrock of patient safety. It takes a safe and supported person to deliver safe healthcare and we must give this attention as we try to find ways to improve the quality of care within our healthcare systems. Ehi Iden, hub topic lead for Occupational Health and Safety, OSHAfrica, reflects on the increasing workload and pressure healthcare professionals face, the impact this has on patient safety and why we need to start 're-humanising' the workplace. -
Content Article
Keep your light shining bright – three tips from Sally Howard
Sally Howard posted an article in Blogs
One of the many Covid challenges is that there hasn’t been an opportunity for frontline staff to pause for breath and pay even a small amount of attention to looking after themselves. And when times are really tricky we only have so much energy. So this is just about you and three things that may help you keep going and keep your brilliant light shining. -
Content Article
Hidden wounds
Stephanie O'Donohue posted an article in Staff safety
In this short blog, Stephanie O'Donohue, Content and Engagement Manager for the hub, reflects on the inner turmoil many NHS staff are experiencing as they are having to spread themselves, and their care, thin. -
Content ArticleThis report from the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) outlines the most important factors for supporting staff in the wake of safety incidents, against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic. The report reinforces the importance of effective staff support for those suffering high levels of psychological harm, as it has a direct impact on patient care. While focusing on patient safety incidents overall, the report also provides valuable insight that could help organisations develop their own programmes of support for any situation. The report features a first-hand account from a junior doctor which charts the impact that a patient safety incident had on his life and his experiences of support. Excerpts from the story emphasise the importance of creating a ‘normalised’ culture around accessing support.
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News Article
NHS staff left traumatised by first Covid wave
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Many hospital staff treating the sickest patients during the first wave of the pandemic were left traumatised by the experience, a study suggests. Researchers at King's College London asked 709 workers at nine intensive care units in England about how they were coping as the first wave eased. Nearly half reported symptoms of severe anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder or problem drinking. One in seven had thoughts of self-harming or being "better off dead". Nursing staff were more likely to report feelings of distress than doctors or other clinical staff in the anonymous web-based survey, which was carried out in June and July last year. Just over half reported good well-being. Victoria Sullivan, an intensive care nurse at Queen's Hospital in Romford, said she often can't sleep because she's thinking about what is happening at the hospital. Her worst moment was breaking the news of a death on the phone, she said, adding that the screams from the patient's relatives "will honestly stay with me forever". "Telling someone over the phone and all you can say is 'I'm really sorry', whilst they're crying their heart out, is quite traumatising," she said. "Although you're saying how sorry you are, in the back of your mind, you're also thinking: 'I've got three other patients I've got to go and see, the infusions need drawing up, and meds need to be given and a nurse needs support'. "The guilt is just too much." Lead researcher Prof Neil Greenberg said the findings should be a "wake-up call" for NHS managers. He said: "The severity of symptoms we identified are highly likely to impair some ICU staff's ability to provide high-quality care as well as negatively impacting on their quality of life." Read full story Source: BBC News, 13 January 2021 -
Content ArticleNursing and midwifery are unarguably stressful endeavours requiring high levels of psychological capital and coping strategies. The impact of the work environment on patient safety outcomes suggests that high nurse/midwife stress may be associated with more adverse patient events. The purpose of this study, published in Nursing and Health Sciences, was to explore the psychological capital of clinical nurses and midwives and identify explanatory factors (including psychological capital, well‐being and health related behaviours) contributing to attitudes to patient safety.The findings suggest that nurse and midwife wellbeing is an important consideration when striving to improve patient safety.
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Content Article
So far in our 2020 overview series, we’ve heard an introduction to how the year has gone from our Chief Executive Helen Hughes, and looked at the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on patient safety, as well as the work we’ve done in the areas of Long COVID and painful hysteroscopies. In our penultimate blog of the series, we turn our attention to the work we’ve done in staff safety.- Posted
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Content ArticleA concept called “psychological safety” is especially crucial to a team’s success, according to Amy Edmondson, professor of leadership and management at the Harvard Business School. Psychological safety describes “a workplace where one feels that one’s voice is welcome with bad news, questions, concerns, half-baked ideas and even mistakes,” Edmondson tells CNBC Make It. People should feel like they can ask questions, raise concerns and pitch ideas without undue repercussions. This article gives a good introduction to what psychological safety is and how to achieve it in the work place.
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News Article
NHS must review ‘all disciplinary procedures’ by March following nurse’s suicide
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
Trusts have been urged to reflect on their disciplinary procedures, and review them annually where required, following the death of a senior nurse who took his own life after being dismissed. NHS England’s chief people officer Prerana Issar has written to trust leaders to highlight Imperial College Healthcare Trust’s new disciplinary procedures, which were put in place following Amin Abdullah’s suicide. Mr Abdullah, a senior nurse at Charing Cross Hospital in west London, was suspended in September 2015 before being let go from his job that December. He died in February 2016 after setting himself on fire. An independent investigation criticised both the trust and its staff and concluded he had been “treated unfairly”. The summary report produced by the trust was labelled a “whitewash”, which “served to reassure the trust that it had handled the case with due care and attention”, and the delay of three months between the events and hearing were “troubling”. The report, which also criticised the delays as “excessive” and “weak” in their justification, said Mr Abdullah found the delay “stressful” and caused him to become “distressed”. In the letter sent on Tuesday, seen by HSJ, Ms Issar said: “The shared learning from Amin’s experience has demonstrated the need for us to work continuously and collaboratively, to ensure that our people practices are inclusive, compassionate and person-centred, with an overriding objective as to the safety and wellbeing of our people… our collective goal is to ensure we enable a fair and compassionate culture in our NHS. I urge you to honestly reflect on your organisation’s disciplinary procedure…" Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ, 3 December 2020 -
Content ArticleThose who have read Professor Edmondson's book "The Fearless Organization" will know that psychological safety is required for team high-performance. Psychological safety is defined as "a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns, or mistakes". If you do not feel safe in a group, you are likely to keep ideas to yourself and avoid speaking up, even about risks. Furthermore, if mistakes are held against you, you then look to avoid making mistakes and so stop taking risks, rather than making the most out of your talents. Low psychological safety, therefore, gets in the way of both team performance, innovation, learning, and personal success. For you to be successful in your team, and "as a team", psychological safety is the enabler. In collaboration with professor Amy C. Edmondson, The Fearless Organization has developed 'The Fearless Organization Scan'. This scan maps how team members perceive the level of psychological safety in their closest context. To improve team performance, it helps to know the Psychological Safety levels in your team, as this is a critical predictor of how your team will learn and work together. By improving the level of psychological safety, you significantly increase the likelihood of team success.
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News Article
'Diabetes burnout': The mental health impact of diagnosis
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
"It's a full-time job that you can't quit. It's a massive burden that you didn't ask for, didn't expect." Diagnosed with type 1 diabetes at the age of 19, Naomi, now 33, says she reached a point where she simply could not handle "the physical or mental challenges of diabetes any more", a condition known as "diabetes burnout". About 250,000 people in England have type 1 diabetes, which means the body cannot produce insulin, the hormone that controls blood sugar levels. It can lead to organ damage, eyesight problems and - in extreme cases - limb amputation. But for many there is also a significant psychological impact of learning to manage the condition. Naomi felt she could no longer bear testing her blood sugar levels many times each day to calculate how much insulin she needed to inject, even though she knew she was risking her long-term health and putting herself in extreme danger, at risk of developing diabetic ketoacidosis (DKA), which can lead to a coma. She became so ill she was admitted to an eating disorder unit even though she was not struggling to eat. The head of the unit, Dr Carla Figueirdo, says of her diabetes patients: "These people are seriously unwell, seriously unwell. They are putting themselves at harm every day of their lives if they don't take their insulin." Naomi's consultant at the Royal Bournemouth Hospital, Dr Helen Partridge, says the psychological impact of a diabetes diagnosis should not be underestimated. The hospital is hosting one of two NHS England pilot projects looking at how to treat type 1 diabetes patients whose chronic illness affects their mental health. NHS England diabetes lead Prof Partha Kar says: "The NHS long-term plan commits strongly on getting mental and physical health together. If we do tackle these two together, it will help improve outcomes." Read full story Source: BBC News, 16 November 2020 -
Content ArticleIdentifying improvements in maternity care to help reduce the risk of delays in crucial interventions during labour when a baby is suspected to be unwell is the focus of this latest Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) report. The report was compiled after a review of 289 of our maternity investigations into intrapartum stillbirths, neonatal deaths and potential severe brain injuries. In 14.9% of the cases the delay was a contributory factor. The review identified issues such as inadequate staffing, poor infrastructure and high workload as contributory factors to the delays. Evidence from national reports confirms that such delays are a recognised patient safety risk.
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Content ArticleThe aim of this study from Choi et al. was to investigate the scope and severity of the second victim problem among nurses in South Korea by examining the experiences and effects of patient safety incidents (PSIs) on them. The study found a considerable number of nurses experienced psychological difficulties due to PSIs at levels that could interfere with their work. The effect of PSIs on nurses with direct experience of PSIs was greater compared with those with indirect experience. There need to be psychological support programmes for nurses to alleviate the negative effects of PSIs.
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Content ArticleSpeaking up protects patient safety and improves the lives of workers. When things go wrong, we need to make sure that lessons are learnt and things are improved. If we think something might go wrong, it’s important that we all feel able to speak up so that potential harm is prevented. Even when things are good, but could be even better, we should feel able to say something and should expect that our suggestion is listened to and used as an opportunity for improvement. Freedom to Speak Up is about encouraging a positive culture where people feel they can speak up and their voices will be heard, and their suggestions acted upon. Follow the below link to access training modules that explain in a clear and consistent way what speaking up is and its importance in creating an environment in which people are supported to deliver their best. It will help you understand the vital role you can play and the support available to encourage a healthy speaking up culture for the benefit of patients and workers. The training has been developed by the National Guardian and Health Education England for anyone who works in healthcare.
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Content ArticleIn September this year, as part of World Patient Safety Day, Patient Safety Learning asked people, via social media and the hub, to name three things staff most needed to be safe. We gathered your responses and are now pleased to present an image which shows the most common themes. According to the responses we received, the four themes that became most obvious – the four things you think staff most need to be safe – are: Compassionate leaders and role models who prioritise their staff’s wellbeing A respectful, supportive team with good communication and united by a common purpose A safe and just culture that invites staff to speak up Psychological safety, protecting staff from burnout.
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Content ArticleIn this blog for the Guardian, a well respected surgeon tells of the time they were admitted to the intensive care unit of the hospital where they worked following a suicide attempt. The surgeon explains how depression is a lot more common in medicine than realised but how it is still stigmatised, even within the medical profession. Many medical staff often display signs of depression differently to others and keep working right up until they break; work brings comfort from the feelings of hopelessness and worthlessness. Very few have the opportunity to attend counselling, since this would require taking time off work. "I would be smiling and laughing on the outside, but on the inside was a continuous mantra of self-loathing that kept getting louder. I pushed myself harder, took extra shifts, tried to put my head down and just get through it. One day, I had had enough. The pain had become physical as well as mental, and the idea of having to live any longer was unbearable."
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Content ArticleRight now, healthcare workers are facing an extremely challenging situation, doing important and difficult work. Taking care of your mental health and managing feelings might be taking a back seat. 'Our Frontline' offers round-the-clock one-to-one support, along with a collection of resources, tips and ideas chosen to support your mental health as you do your work to protect us all and keep the country going. To talk by text, text FRONTLINE to 85258 any time. To talk by phone for free, call 0800 069 6222 from 7am to 11pm if you’re in England, or call 116 123 any time if you’re elsewhere in the UK. It’s all in confidence, with trained volunteers. The link below gives some more details about the help that’s available, and some other things that Our Frontline think you’ll find useful.
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Content ArticleThe Irish College of General Practitioners (ICGP) Doctors' Health in Practice Programme aims to promote and support the good physical health, occupational health, psychological health and wellbeing of GPs. It encourages primary health care for doctors' healthcare in the first instance and supports the aim that every GP and GP Trainee should have a GP. You can find a list of directories, contacts and supports for doctors and your families, and resources that can be used for personal self-reflection, education, research or to help colleagues.
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Content ArticleThe COVID-19 pandemic is a traumatic event for many, particularly those in the caring professions. Experts are predicting a significant “second curve” of mental health problems among both healthcare workers and the public related to prolonged social isolation, loss of economic opportunity, grief from losing loved ones, among other causes. While there has been no shortage of resources and recommendations designed to help healthcare workers manage stress during the pandemic, there’s a tendency to place the burden on the individual. At a minimum, it is important that remedies acknowledge the shared responsibility of the healthcare system for creating the conditions for fear, anxiety, and burnout in the first place. In an effort to streamline, provide sensemaking, and support care teams during this critical time, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) synthesised themes from several key publications, expert interviews, and five years of experience gained by partnering with health systems around the world to address staff well-being and joy in work. Three key areas to focus on have emerged, along with specific actions healthcare leaders can take to support their workforce and address the more immediate and longer-term effects of the pandemic.
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Content ArticleWhen crises happen, staff health and social services rise to the challenge. No-one knew exactly what the impact of the new coronavirus, COVID-19, would be but it was clear that everyone would be required to adopt new and different ways of working. Here is the story behind Healthcare Improvement Scotland's new National Wellbeing Hub website which is part of a network of support provided for all health and social care staff wherever they work in Scotland, and unpaid carers, that helps people look after themselves. The Hub complements other national support initiatives such as the National Helpline, and those provided at local level by NHS boards, health and social care partnerships and local authorities.
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Content ArticleIf you’re a mental health professional helping frontline healthcare workers who are providing care to people affected by COVID 19, Professor Neil Greenberg, from Kings College London, offers three important things to think about: How do you prevent staff from developing mental health difficulties? How do you find out really early on in order that you can provide simple interventions? How do you provide treatment for people who unfortunately do go on and develop mental health difficulties?
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Content ArticleToday, on World Patient Safety Day, we're delighted to release a short video, giving you a glimpse into an online workshop we held, in partnership with Nutshell Communications, on 7 September. The intimate, highly participative event, known as Whose Shoes?, was attended by staff in health and care and patients, as part of our work around World Patient Safety Day. During the event, different scenarios – crowdsourced by real people – were discussed. The purpose of the event was for attendees to get together and openly talk about their personal experiences around key issues in staff safety and how they impact patient safety. Patient Safety Learning Chief Executive Helen Hughes, commented: "We were delighted with our collaboration with Whose Shoes. It’s an impressive approach to provide the space and support to consider real-life scenarios and hear people’s responses and personal experiences. It’s the first time we’ve done this and we want to do more! We’ve captured insights and pledges for staff safety improvement that will inform our work and the change we all want to see for safer healthcare." Please enjoy this short video, giving you a glimpse into the event and an example of one of the scenarios we discussed.
