The role of emotion in patient safety: are we brave enough to scratch beneath the surface?

Jane Heyhoe; Yvonne Birks; Reema Harrison; Jane K. O'Hara; Alison Cracknell; Rebecca Lawton

Review

The role of emotion in patient safety: are we brave enough to scratch beneath the surface?

January 27, 2016

Heyhoe J, Birks Y, Harrison R, et al. J R Soc Med. 2016;109(2):52-8.

View more articles from the same authors.

Health care can be stressful for both providers and the patients. This commentary explores how health care providers' emotional state can affect clinical decision-making and patient safety. The authors suggest strategies to address these issues in training, care delivery, and research.

PubMed citation

Available at

Free full text

Related Resources From the Same Author(s)

Does team reflexivity impact teamwork and communication in interprofessional hospital-based healthcare teams? A systematic review and narrative synthesis.

February 5, 2020

Exploring how ward staff engage with the implementation of a patient safety intervention: a UK-based qualitative process evaluation.

August 2, 2017

Is there a role for patients and their relatives in escalating clinical deterioration in hospital? A systematic review.

December 7, 2016

The future of engaging patients and families for patient safety.

October 18, 2023

Improving responses to safety incidents: we need to talk about justice.

February 23, 2022

Scaffolding our systems? Patients and families 'reaching in' as a source of healthcare resilience.

January 16, 2019

Can staff and patient perspectives on hospital safety predict harm-free care? An analysis of staff and patient survey data and routinely collected outcomes.

April 22, 2015

What can patients tell us about the quality and safety of hospital care? Findings from a UK multicentre survey study.

March 28, 2018

A qualitative formative evaluation of a patient-centred patient safety intervention delivered in collaboration with hospital volunteers.

August 2, 2017

Exploring the "Black Box" of recommendation generation in local health care incident investigations: a scoping review.

October 25, 2023

Humanizing harm: using a restorative approach to heal and learn from adverse events.

May 4, 2022

The patient reporting and action for a safe environment (PRASE) intervention: a feasibility study.

December 21, 2016

Doctors' experiences of adverse events in secondary care: the professional and personal impact.

February 11, 2015

"Change is what can actually make the tough times better": a patient-centred patient safety intervention delivered in collaboration with hospital volunteers.

November 14, 2018

Developing a reliable and valid patient measure of safety in hospitals (PMOS): a validation study.

June 25, 2014

Multiple meanings of resilience: health professionals' experiences of a dual element training intervention designed to help them prepare for coping with error.

March 31, 2021

The contribution of nurses to incident disclosure: a narrative review.

August 28, 2013

Is physician mentorship associated with the occurrence of adverse patient safety events?

April 10, 2019

Patient and public co-creation of healthcare safety and healthcare system resilience: the case of COVID-19.

July 5, 2023

Mentorship for newly appointed physicians: a strategy for enhancing patient safety?

September 3, 2014

Can patient involvement improve patient safety? A cluster randomised control trial of the Patient Reporting and Action for a Safe Environment (PRASE) intervention.

February 15, 2017

Exploring patient safety outcomes for people with learning disabilities in acute hospital settings: a scoping review.

June 30, 2021

Developing a primary care patient measure of safety (PC PMOS): a modified Delphi process and face validity testing.

July 22, 2015

Emotion and coping in the aftermath of medical error: a cross-country exploration.

March 4, 2015

Burnout mediates the association between depression and patient safety perceptions: a cross-sectional study in hospital nurses.

April 26, 2017

How might health services capture patient-reported safety concerns in a hospital setting? An exploratory pilot study of three mechanisms.

April 20, 2016

Coping with medical error: a systematic review of papers to assess the effects of involvement in medical errors on healthcare professionals' psychological well-being.

July 14, 2010

Toward constructive change after making a medical error: recovery from situations of error theory as a psychosocial model for clinician recovery.

August 10, 2022

What do patients and their carers do to support the safety of cancer treatment and care? A scoping review.

December 14, 2022

Systemic safety inequities for people with learning disabilities: a qualitative integrative analysis of the experiences of English health and social care for people with learning disabilities, their families and carers.

March 2, 2022

Are more experienced clinicians better able to tolerate uncertainty and manage risks? A vignette study of doctors in three NHS emergency departments in England.

February 27, 2019

Types and effects of feedback for emergency ambulance staff: a systematic mixed studies review and meta-analysis.

July 12, 2023

Patient and family involvement in serious incident investigations from the perspectives of key stakeholders: a review of the qualitative evidence.

August 17, 2022

Development of an evidence-based framework of factors contributing to patient safety incidents in hospital settings: a systematic review.

March 29, 2012

Incidence, preventability and consequences of adverse events in older people: results of a retrospective case-note review.

March 26, 2008

Extent, nature and consequences of adverse events: results of a retrospective casenote review in a large NHS hospital.

December 12, 2007

A qualitative study of systemic influences on paramedic decision making: care transitions and patient safety.

January 28, 2015

Fidelity and the impact of patient safety huddles on teamwork and safety culture: an evaluation of the Huddle Up for Safer Healthcare (HUSH) project.

October 20, 2021

The association between health care staff engagement and patient safety outcomes: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

February 3, 2021

Improving patient safety through the involvement of patients: development and evaluation of novel interventions to engage patients in preventing patient safety incidents and protecting them against unintended harm.

November 16, 2016

Critical incident stress debriefing after adverse patient safety events.

August 9, 2017

Twelve tips for implementing a patient safety curriculum in an undergraduate programme in medicine.

August 3, 2011

Patient safety vulnerabilities for children with intellectual disability in hospital: a systematic review and narrative synthesis.

April 25, 2018

Sensitivity of routine system for reporting patient safety incidents in an NHS hospital: retrospective patient case note review.

January 3, 2007

Patient safety and quality of care in developing countries in Southeast Asia: a systematic literature review.

October 21, 2015

Workplace training for senior trainees: a systematic review and narrative synthesis of current approaches to promote patient safety.

September 16, 2015

Identifying safety practices perceived as low value: an exploratory survey of healthcare staff in the United Kingdom and Australia.

March 8, 2023

The views and experiences of patients and health-care professionals on the disclosure of adverse events: a systematic review and qualitative meta-ethnographic synthesis.

April 8, 2020

Inequities in quality and safety outcomes for hospitalized children with intellectual disability.

March 16, 2022

Using consumer engagement strategies to improve healthcare safety for young people: an exploration of the relevance and suitability of current approaches.

November 30, 2022

Patient complaints about hospital services: applying a complaint taxonomy to analyse and respond to complaints.

June 8, 2016

A qualitative positive deviance study to explore exceptionally safe care on medical wards for older people.

April 10, 2019

What methods are used to apply positive deviance within healthcare organisations? A systematic review.

March 2, 2016

Errors in breast imaging: how to reduce errors and promote a safety environment.

July 7, 2021

Patient perspectives on delays in diagnosis and treatment of cancer: a qualitative analysis of free-text data.

December 7, 2016

Positive deviance: a different approach to achieving patient safety.

August 20, 2014

Developing a patient measure of safety (PMOS).

March 20, 2013

Accelerating the adoption of a safety culture.

April 1, 2015

Attitudes to patient safety amongst medical students and tutors: developing a reliable and valid measure.

October 28, 2009

Identifying the latent failures underpinning medication administration errors: an exploratory study.

March 21, 2012

The missing evidence: a systematic review of patients' experiences of adverse events in health care.

October 28, 2015

Talking about falls: a qualitative exploration of spoken communication of patients' fall risks in hospitals and implications for multifactorial approaches to fall prevention.

November 29, 2023

Patients' reports of adverse events: a data linkage study of Australian adults aged 45 years and over.

September 6, 2017

The impact of adverse events on clinicians: what's in a name?

November 22, 2017

Speaking up about safety concerns: multi-setting qualitative study of patients' views and experiences.

December 15, 2010

The safety of health care for ethnic minority patients: a systematic review.

July 29, 2020

Engaging with ethnic minority consumers to improve safety in cancer services: a national stakeholder analysis.

May 25, 2022

Using in situ simulation to improve in-hospital cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

May 5, 2010

Effectiveness of interventions designed to promote patient involvement to enhance safety: a systematic review.

June 2, 2010

Effect of a rapid response team on the incidence of in-hospital mortality.

September 7, 2022

Health literacy and systemic racism—using clear communication to reduce health care inequities.

July 12, 2023

How long and how much are nurses now working?

April 19, 2006

Do patient engagement interventions work for all patients? A systematic review and realist synthesis of interventions to enhance patient safety.

September 15, 2021

Can patients report patient safety incidents in a hospital setting? A systematic review.

May 23, 2012

Root causes and preventability of unintentionally retained foreign objects after surgery: a national expert survey from Switzerland.

July 19, 2023

Outcomes of a quality improvement project for educating nurses on medication administration and errors in nursing homes.

July 16, 2014

A scoping review exploring the confidence of healthcare professionals in assessing all skin tones.

October 4, 2023

How to stay on the right side of the infection control code.

July 20, 2005

Patients as teachers: a randomised controlled trial on the use of personal stories of harm to raise awareness of patient safety for doctors in training.

September 3, 2014

Identifying patient safety problems during team rounds: an ethnographic study.

July 16, 2014

Hospital nurses' perceptions of human factors contributing to nursing errors.

June 10, 2015

What are we doing when we double check?

April 1, 2020

Artificial intelligence in health care: accountability and safety.

June 3, 2020

Oncology nurses' beliefs and attitudes towards the double-check of chemotherapy medications: a cross-sectional survey study.

March 21, 2018

Medication double-checking procedures in clinical practice: a cross-sectional survey of oncology nurses' experiences.

September 7, 2016

Quality and safety education for nurses: a nursing leadership skills exercise.

June 4, 2014

Safer by design.

February 13, 2008

'Matching Michigan': a 2-year stepped interventional programme to minimise central venous catheter-blood stream infections in intensive care units in England.

March 6, 2013

Patient safety threats in information management using health information technology in ambulatory cancer care: an exploratory, prospective study.

June 10, 2020

Level IV evidence—adverse anecdote and clinical practice.

July 27, 2011

Motivational antecedents of incident reporting: evidence from a survey of nurses and physicians.

November 27, 2013

Factors influencing a nurse's decision to question medication administration in a neonatal clinical care unit.

June 29, 2016

Assessment of patients' ability to review electronic health record information to identify potential errors: cross-sectional web-based survey.

March 10, 2021

Improving patient safety in hospitals: contributions of high-reliability theory and normal accident theory.

July 12, 2006

Green Cross method in a postanaesthesia care unit: a qualitative study of the healthcare professionals' experiences after 3 years, including the COVID-19 pandemic period.

June 14, 2023

Incident reporting behaviours following the Francis report: a cross-sectional survey.

February 21, 2018

Addressing healthcare-associated infections and antimicrobial resistance from an organizational perspective: progress and challenges.

September 12, 2012

Promoting patient safety using an early warning scoring system.

August 27, 2008

Supporting a psychiatric hospital culture of safety.

November 21, 2012

Disclosing medical errors: views from the United States and the United Kingdom.

May 21, 2014

Related Resources

Health Services Safety Investigations Body.

October 1, 2023

Perspectives on Safety

Beyond the Pandemic: Creating Total Systems Safety

August 30, 2023

Perspectives on Safety

Interview

In Conversation with Patricia McGaffigan about Beyond the Pandemic: Creating Total Systems Safety

August 30, 2023

Racial and ethnic disparities in obstetric and gynecologic care and role of implicit biases.

May 18, 2023

Annual Perspective

Improving Diagnostic Safety and Quality

April 26, 2023

Associations of physician burnout with career engagement and quality of patient care: systematic review and meta-analysis.

September 28, 2022

The barriers and enhancers to trust in a just culture in hospital settings: a systematic review.

August 17, 2022

Promoting the psychological well-being of healthcare providers facing the burden of adverse events: a systematic review of second victim support resources.

June 23, 2021

Second victim: a traumatic experience.

June 16, 2021

Measuring safety in older adult care homes: a scoping review of the international literature.

May 19, 2021

Awareness of human factors in the operating theatres during the COVID-19 pandemic.

January 13, 2021

Barriers and facilitators to healthcare workers' adherence with infection prevention and control (IPC) guidelines for respiratory infectious diseases: a rapid qualitative evidence synthesis.

May 13, 2020

Managing risk in hazardous conditions: improvisation is not enough.

July 24, 2019

A safety evaluation of the impact of maternity-orientated human factors training on safety culture in a tertiary maternity unit.

June 19, 2019

Ranking hospitals based on preventable hospital death rates: a systematic review with implications for both direct measurement and indirect measurement through standardized mortality rates.

April 3, 2019

Gosport War Memorial Hospital. The Report of the Gosport Independent Panel.

November 7, 2018

Classification of patient-safety incidents in primary care.

September 26, 2018

Patient safety in otolaryngology: a descriptive review.

November 16, 2016

Burnout in the nursing home health care aide: a systematic review.

August 31, 2016

Healthcare staff wellbeing, burnout, and patient safety: a systematic review.

August 24, 2016

Increased risk of burnout for physicians and nurses involved in a patient safety incident.

June 15, 2016

Dual-process cognitive interventions to enhance diagnostic reasoning: a systematic review.

April 13, 2016

Assessment of fidelity in interventions to improve hand hygiene of healthcare workers: a systematic review.

March 16, 2016

What methods are used to apply positive deviance within healthcare organisations? A systematic review.

March 2, 2016

Patients' views of adverse events in primary and ambulatory care: a systematic review to assess methods and the content of what patients consider to be adverse events.

February 17, 2016

Implications of case managers' perceptions and attitude on safety of home-delivered care.

February 17, 2016

Aviation and healthcare: a comparative review with implications for patient safety.

February 3, 2016

Systematic review of patient safety interventions in dentistry.

December 9, 2015

Virginia Tech as a sentinel event: the role of psychiatry in managing emotionally troubled students on college and university campuses.

December 2, 2015

An integrative review of patient safety in studies on the care and safety of patients with communication disabilities in hospital.

December 2, 2015

See More About The Topic

Health Care Providers

Health Care Executives and Administrators

Organizational Behaviorists

Psychological and Social Complications

Epidemiology of Errors and Adverse Events

The role of emotion in patient safety: are we brave enough to scratch beneath the surface?

Connect With Us

Sign up for Email Updates

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

The role of emotion in patient safety: are we brave enough to scratch beneath the surface?

Connect With Us

Sign up for Email Updates

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

Submit Your Innovations

Continue as a Guest

Continue Logged In

Submit Your Innovations

Continue as a Guest

Continue logged in

New Users to the PSNet site