Assertive communication training for nurses to speak up in cases of medical errors: a systematic review and meta-analysis.
Patient safety can be improved when all staff feel empowered to speak up about errors. In this systematic review, the authors identified 11 studies on the effectiveness of trainings to increase nurses' assertiveness to report medical errors. Interventions resulted in significant improvement in nurses' speaking up behavior, but not their attitude or confidence after training. Structured content, use of multiple teaching approaches, and adequate training time were critical to significant improvement.