Patient safety improves when leaders walk the safety talk

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. When nurses feel safe admitting to their supervisors that they've made a mistake regarding a patient, they are more likely to report the error, which ultimately leads to a stronger commitment to safe practices and a reduction in the error rate, according to an international team of researchers. In addition, when nurse leaders' safety actions mirror their spoken words - when they practice what they preach - unit nurses do not feel caught between adhering to safety protocols and speaking up about mistakes against protocols. "Patient errors remain a major source of avoidable patient harm in the United States," said Deirdre McCaughey, assistant professor of health policy and administration at Penn State. "The Institute of Medicine report, 'To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System,' charged that avoidable medical errors in U.S. hospitals kill at least 44,000 patients a year. Feeling comfortable reporting errors also leads to a stronger commitment to safe practices, which ultimately reduces error rate. McCaughey and her colleagues examined the notion that care providers may experience a conflict between the strong enforcement of safety procedures on the one hand, and the reporting of safety/patient errors on the other hand.