Through the Eyes of the Workforce: Creating Joy, Meaning, and Safer Health Care.
Roundtable on Joy and Meaning in Work and Workforce Safety, The Lucian Leape Institute. Boston, MA: National Patient Safety Foundation; 2013.
The Lucian Leape Institute hosted two roundtables and multiple focus groups to explore the need to create safer working conditions for health care professionals. This report highlights the current state of health care workplaces, which subject many health care workers to emotional and physical harms in the course of providing care. The authors also explicitly link workplace safety to patient safety, noting that poor working conditions place caregivers at higher risks for making medical errors. The report outlines seven strategies for organizations to improve workplace safety, challenging health care centers to become effective high-reliability organizations that are committed to continuous learning, improvement, teamwork, and transparency. An AHRQ interview with Dr. Lucian Leape describes his remarkable career at the forefront of the patient safety movement.