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Tip of the week: Positively change safety climate in your facility

Hospital Safety Connection, January 19, 2012

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A new study published in BMJ Quality and Safety in October 2011 shows that "climate" is a term safety directors might want to become more familiar with. The study measured the safety climate of an urban Level 1 trauma center using a safety attitudes questionnaire among frontline staff members, then compared that data with patient and nurse injuries, incidents of pulmonary embolism/deep vein thrombosis, and decubitus ulcers.

The results of the study revealed some interesting discoveries—namely that safety climate was associated with both nurse and patient injuries, suggesting that better nurse safety is linked with better patient outcomes.

Below are some ways safety directors can effectively change the climate in their facility:

• Ask. By simply approaching nurses and asking them about what can be done to improve safety or ways in which their job can be made easier and less stressful, you will get a feel for what the safety climate is like on that unit. "Have a conversation with the workforce about the unit," Taylor says. "They are your boots on the ground."
• Listen. Nurses want to know that you can be approached with safety concerns. Making yourself available to listen to them will go a long way toward improving the safety climate.

For more tips, visit Hospital Safety Center. Find this tip in the January issue of Briefings on Hospital Safety (log-in required).

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