This qualitative study analyzed how clinicians decide to speak up if they observe a safety breach (in this case, failing to follow infection control precautions). Although several factors influence this decision, the overarching conclusion is that the decision to speak up is strongly influenced by the context and immediate circumstances surrounding the incident in question. The willingness to speak up about safety concerns is a core component of safety culture.

Health care workers often work while sick. This phenomenon, known as "presenteeism," has been implicated in outbreaks of health care–associated infections and is associated with burnout. Researchers surveyed physicians and advanced practice clinicians at a children's hospital. This study found that most clinicians reported working while sick, consistent with a prior study of presenteeism among resident physicians. Cultural and system factors resulted in pressure to work while ill, including a sense of not wanting to let colleagues or patients down by being absent and lack of support systems to provide coverage for sick clinicians. The accompanying editorial acknowledges the stigma that clinicians face if they take sick leave and calls for organizations to develop transparent and equitable policies and systems to combat presenteeism.

This ethnographic study describes how health care workers use patient safety culture to describe individual behaviors rather than social norms. The author contends that making reference to changing safety culture impedes implementation of some safety practices and places the onus for patient safety disproportionately on frontline staff, underscoring the challenges of measuring and addressing safety culture.