After unanticipated adverse events, healthcare providers may experience negative emotions, such as sadness, anxiety, or anger, sometimes referred to as the "second victim" experience (SVE). In this study of 171 respiratory therapists, more than half reported they had been part of an event that resulted in SVE. Nearly three-quarters reported that short staffing played a role in their emotional distress, and half indicated COVID-19 contributed to their SVE. In line with other studies, the most desired type of support following an adverse event was talking to a peer.

… climate and willingness to speak up. … Engle RL, Gillespie C, Clark VA, et al. Factors differentiating nursing homes with …

Drug diversion is a system issue that has the potential to disrupt patient access to safe, reliable medications and result in harm. These guidelines offer a structured approach for organizations to develop and implement drug diversion prevention efforts. The strategies submitted focus on foundational, organizational, and individual prevention actions that target risk points across the medication use process such as storage, prescribing, and waste disposal.

I-PASS is a structured handoff tool to enhance communication during patient transfers and improve patient safety. This study found that I-PASS implementation at 32 hospitals decreased major and minor handoff-related adverse events and improved key handoff elements (e.g., frequency of handoffs with high verbal quality) across provider types and settings.

People taking medications at home may have difficulty opening packaging which can result in improper, dangerous storage practices. This review includes 12 studies where participants were observed opening a variety of medication packages (e.g., blister packs, child-resistant containers). While all studies reported participant difficulty, no consistent contributory factors were identified, and the methodological quality of all studies was typically low. Additional research is required to encourage improvement in medication packaging.

Human factors play an important role in contributing to and preventing adverse events. This study found that integrating human factors into a new root cause analysis process led to an increase in the number of strong interventions implemented after adverse events.

Research and medical practice are negatively affected by systemic and implicit bias. This commentary discusses this phenomenon in the mental health sector and suggests a role for researchers to reduce the inappropriate use of race in psychiatric practice while limiting its detrimental impact on care nationwide.

The safety climate in nursing homes influences patient safety. This study of frontline staff and managers from 56 US Veterans Health Administration community living centers found that organizational readiness to change predicted safety climate. The authors suggest that nursing home leadership explore readiness for change in order to help nursing homes improve their safety climate.

Burnout has been a focus of numerous studies since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic; however, this is the first to focus on burnout and secondary traumatic stress (STS) among health system pharmacists. Nearly two thirds (65.3%) of respondents had a moderate to high likelihood of experiencing burnout and 51% had a high probability of STS. Due to the association between burnout and decreased patient safety, it is critical that health systems address pharmacist burnout appropriately.

Reducing maternal harm is an ongoing safety goal. Survey results from 1,165 nurses working on maternity units from four states found that nurses in the majority of hospitals felt that their units do not provide excellent quality care and have a less than optimal safety climate. Nurses commonly reported communication challenges, fears related to challenging authority, and that their mistakes are held against them.

This study examined the prevalence and risk factors for COVID-19 infection among frontline healthcare personnel who work with COVID-19 patients. Serum specimens were collected from a convenience sample of 3,248 frontline personnel between April 3 and June 19, 2020.  Six percent (6%) tested positive for SARS-CoV-2 antibodies; a high proportion of these individuals did not suspect that they had been previously infected. This study highlights the role that asymptomatic COVID-19 infections play and authors suggest that enhanced screening and universal use of face coverings in hospitals are two strategies to reduce COVID-19 transmissions in healthcare settings.

This cross-sectional study examined the impact of safety climate on adverse events occurring in Veterans Administration (VA) nursing homes and community living centers. Survey results suggest that nursing homes may reduce adverse events by increasing supportive supervision and a safer physical environment. The survey found that supervisor commitment to safety was associated with lower rates of major injuries from falls and catheter use, and that environmental safety was associated with lower rates of pressure ulcers, major injuries from falls, and catheter use.

Patients and families have the potential to help medical teams proactively detect clinical deteriorations. This qualitative study with consumer advocates resulted in a comprehensive model for empowering patients to accurately activate rapid response systems.

This usability study examined whether older adults could use a mobile application to consider the risks and benefits of anticholinergics, a high-risk medication class. The 23 participants reported an overall high usability for the application, suggesting that mobile health information technology has potential to engage patients in safety.

Unprofessional behavior detracts from safety culture and is often learned as part of the hidden curriculum in health care. This paper described two interventions that effectively increased student nurses' self-efficacy in responding to incivility. In a WebM&M commentary, two hospital leaders discuss how they would respond to a provider's unprofessional conduct.