Enhancing safety culture and event reporting: Insights from clinicians and administrators

Abstract

Background: Although there is a growing body of literature on the effect of education strategies on the reporting rates of safety events in hospitals, less is known about what worked well and what did not work well according to those who participate in the strategies. This paper provides findings around how participants perceived a multi-pronged approach to enhancing safety culture and event reporting.

Methods: A qualitative design using focus group methodology was used to elicit the experiences of clinicians and administrators associated with the SafetyNET intervention. Content analyses was employed including initial coding; clustering of codes to categories; developing a coding schema; cross-checking the emergent coding schema with all the original transcripts; and validating the emergent themes and coding schema with the research team.

Results: In total, ten clinicians and twelve administrators participated in a series of 3 focus groups. This study revealed two key themes around how participants perceived a multi-pronged approach to enhancing safety culture and event reporting: 1) being aware of what to report and to practice safely; 2) learning impeded amidst  competing priorities, beliefs, and inaccessibility. In addition, study participants recommended a variety of strategies to improve reporting safety events.

Conclusions: Nurse leaders can use study findings to inform their future efforts to enhance safety culture and reporting of and learning from safety events that are occurring in their organizations.