Patient engagement is a cornerstone of patient safety initiatives. This systematic review explored how patients and caregivers are engaged as partners in healthcare, particularly in cancer care and mental health care.

Gender bias has been implicated in negatively affecting patient safety. The authors conducted semi-structured interviews to explore how gender and other social identify factors impact experiences and teamwork in the operating room. Researchers found that women being routinely challenged or ignored or perceived negatively when assertive may hinder their pursuit of leadership positions or certain specialties. Implicit gender bias and stereotypes along with deeply entrenched structural barriers persist and complicate hierarchical relations between professions – all contributing to breakdowns in communication, increased patient safety risks, and poor team morale.  

… Am J Surg … Surgical safety checklists (SSC) have been adopted … and researchers are discussed. … Hammond Mobilio M, Paradis E, Moulton CA. "Some version, most of the time": the … and the everyday experience of practice variation. Am J Surg. Epub 2021 Nov 24. doi: 10.1016/j.amjsurg.2021.11.002. …

… online open courses (MOOCs) have the ability to reach a broad audience of learners. The Science of Safety in … competence for patient safety among global learners: a prospective cohort study. Nurse Educ Today. 2021;104:104984. doi: 10.1016/j.nedt.2021.104984. …

… Journal of health services research & policy … J Health Serv Res Policy … Prioritizing patient safety can be … to organization solutions is critical to improvement. A PSNet interview with senior author Mary Dixon-Woods …

Semi-structured interviews of 15 surgical residents revealed that surgical trainees may feel pressured to exhibit certain characteristics they perceive as consistent with the ideal surgical personality. The authors suggest that trainee education should acknowledge the impact of the sociocultural context of the surgical environment on trainees.

… Soc Sci Med … Soc Sci Med … Achieving a positive safety culture requires that all team members feel … deviations from normal practice. The authors argue that a better understanding of social control is necessary to … voicing safety concerns in the clinical setting. A past WebM&M commentary discussed an incident involving a …

… of health IT use on relationships among clinicians over a year-long period across three academic intensive care … awareness, communication, and patient satisfaction. A previous PSNet perspective discussed some of the pitfalls …

Intensive care units (ICUs) are complex environments that carry high risk for medical errors. This review explores the role of safety culture and patient and family engagement in reducing opportunities for error in ICUs. The authors draw from quality improvement processes to provide insights for implementing safety initiatives and involving patients and families in these efforts.

… reduce errors and accidents. This commentary outlines a framework that focuses on integrating competencies at all …

Patients are at risk for adverse events after they transition from hospital to home. This study used review of malpractice claims and stakeholder focus groups to inform planning tools for postdischarge care transitions. Pilot testing of the tools demonstrated acceptability and feasibility for patients and providers. These results suggest that malpractice data can inform safety improvement approaches.

… Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf … Jt Comm J Qual Patient Saf … Forming … describes the development of 14 clinical communities as a way to support institutional quality improvement goals in a large health care system. The authors report the benefits …

… Crit Care Med … The intensive care unit is often cited as a model of interprofessional teamwork . This ethnographic …

… be ascribed to one of five contributing factors, including a poor culture of safety and insufficient communication …

… The authors provide insights regarding establishing a safety governance structure, setting a committee agenda, and implementing and evaluating …

… Journal of interprofessional care … J Interprof Care … This systematic review found that …

Leaders of quality improvement/patient safety and continuing education in Canada felt that efforts in these two domains were separated and that there were many opportunities to collaborate. However, they had differing views on how to best integrate programs.

Clinical staff often fail to call rapid response teams to evaluate deteriorating patients, even when objective criteria for calling the team are met. This qualitative study of physicians and nurses at an Australian hospital found that an impaired culture of safety can result in failure to use the rapid response team when appropriate and can also lead to using the team as a workaround to compensate for poor interdisciplinary communication.

… Journal of interprofessional care … J Interprof Care … This qualitative study reveals differences … of their work. The authors emphasize the need to reach a common understanding to facilitate interprofessional …

Achieving an organizational safety culture is a widely espoused goal. This study explores the tension between disciplinary approaches and more consensus-oriented methods for stimulating clinician behavior change to enhance safety in hospitals.