Nursing Culture of Safety
Culture of change in healthcare involves significant changes, including transformation of the mindsets of care providers. Researchers reveal the role that education and training for nurses play when supporting the cultural shift in healthcare organizations (Barnsteiner, 2011; González-Formoso et al., 2019). Educational intervention is necessary in fostering the culture of safety and an essential step in promoting quality in care settings (González-Formoso et al., 2019). Educational interventions are effective in supporting informed service providers, capable of identifying and reporting adverse incidents that might negatively affect patients’ outcomes. Barnsteiner (2011) proposes the use of an effective curriculum to support the education of healthcare professionals including nurses. The intervention involves training nurses and other care providers about patient safety and system vulnerabilities. Such efforts will reduce the incidences of errors and other dangers to patient safety through timely identification and correction.
The rationale of using educational interventions in promoting a culture of safety is to enhance knowledge about system vulnerabilities to support corrective actions. It also helps in understanding of how knowledge, skills, and attitudes promote the use of safety science in creating a safe and quality care setting. Nurses learn about the essentials of the culture of safety and the necessity of creating such a setup to improve patient and organizational outcomes (Barnsteiner, 2011). Therefore, instead of changing the systems only, it is important to train their handlers to ensure comprehensive development of safety (González-Formoso et al., 2019). Qualified healthcare professionals will handle the new systems successfully to prevent errors and other dangers to patient safety. Education will also create long-term changes by altering attitudes and mindsets towards safe care. It will create a significant cultural adjustment that will affect the organization in both short and long-term.
