The Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture and Nursing Home Survey on Patient Safety Culture were used in one Finish healthcare organization to assess 1) differences in employee perceptions of safety culture in their respective settings, and 2) differences between professionals’ and managers’ views. Managers assessed safety culture higher than professionals in both settings. Acute care patient safety scores were significantly positive in 8 out of twelve domains, compared to only one in long-term care.

This study compared medication errors detected using incident reports, the Global Trigger Tool method, and direct observations of patient records. Incident reports and the Global Trigger Tool more commonly identified medication errors likely to cause harm. Omission errors were commonly identified by all three methods, but identification of other errors varied. For example, incident reports most commonly identified wrong dose and wrong time errors. The contributing factors also varied by method, but in general, communication issues and human factors were the most common contributors.

This study used qualitative methods to understand the experiences of former psychiatric patients that nursing staff considered challenging and that resulted in behavior management interventions (e.g., aggression, self-harm, inappropriate sexual behavior). Interviewed patients cited various reasons for these challenging behaviors, including communication difficulties related to their psychiatric symptoms, stressful feelings such as frustration and fear, coercive nursing culture and restrictive nursing practices. Strategies for managing these behaviors are discussed, as well as core competencies for delivering care based on patients’ needs.

This survey of medical inpatients at five academic medical centers in Finland aimed to elicit patients' perceptions of safety and experience of errors. Investigators found that encouragement from staff, education about patient safety, and comprehensible information all led to higher participation rates. The authors conclude that patients will be more engaged in their safety if frontline staff value patient involvement.

Providing patient-centered care calls for involving patients in all aspects of care. However, patient engagement in safety efforts remains challenging. Analyzing survey data from 21 Finnish patient safety experts, researchers determined that patient participation in maintaining their own safety varied across institutions and did not consistently meet national standards. They suggest that institutions should focus on creating a safety culture that promotes an equal partnership with patients to achieve high quality care.

… improvement in medication safety . … Vaismoradi M, Griffiths P, Turunen H, Jordan S. Transformational leadership in nursing …

This direct observation study found that verifying patients' identity prior to medication administration, a key patient safety practice, was not routinely employed. Nurses with more experience tended to comply with the identification protocol less, underscoring the challenge of effectively implementing patient safety recommendations.

This literature review found that nurses learn about patient safety through formal curricula and through their clinical experiences. However, the evidence that curricula were effective at improving patient safety knowledge was limited.

This commentary discusses the value of nurse managers integrating ethical standards when making decisions to ensure safety in nursing care.

Three categories were used to explore potential causes of error in the operating room—demanding teamwork practice, shared responsibility in teams, and organized teamwork. Results revealed that attention to workforce, management, and reporting issues has the potential to improve the situation.