Did you know?....
- A key tenet of safety culture is the premise that all team members should speak up about safety concerns; however, research has found that many healthcare workers do not feel comfortable speaking up.
- Interns, residents and fellows are licensed to practice medicine, providing most of the bedside clinical care and making most routine clinical decisions while being supervised by senior medical staff (supervised autonomy within a medical hierarchy).
- A systematic review explored the mechanisms within the medical hierarchy influencing speaking up behaviors in the presence of witnessed medical error.
- Hierarchical influences often characterized by fear and intimidation are a direct influence of the workplace culture, which can lead to organizational silence, thereby exacerbating and perpetuating the communication problems, and contributing to patient morbidity and mortality.
Access the full text article here.
And, NCPS members can access and view a recorded webinar, "Stories of Silence, or Speaking Up?: Psychological Safety in Healthcare Teams and Organizations" by logging into the Members only portal and visiting the Educational Resources pages!
