Using Safety-II and resilient healthcare principles to learn from Never Events

Patient Safety Culture: Nurses' Perspective in the Hospital Setting

(1) Background: Patient safety culture (PSC) encompasses the values, attitudes, norms, beliefs, practices, perceptions, competencies, policies, and behaviours of professionals that determine organisational commitment to quality and patient safety. Few studies use mixed methods to analyse patient safety culture, and none offer the richness of using a mixed methodology to develop their theoretical model. This study aims to identify the factors nurses believe contextualise and influence PSC in relation to existing theoretical frameworks. (2) Methods: This study employed a sequential explanatory mixed-methods design combined with the Pillar Integration Process for data integration. (3) Results: In the final data integration process, 26 factors affecting nurses' PSC were identified. Factors nurses related to PSC not being assessed with the tool used in phase 1 were notification system, flow of patients, patient involvement, resources and infrastructure, and service characteristics. (4) Conclusions: This mixed-methods study provides an opportunity to identify the weaknesses and strengths of currently developed theoretical frameworks related to PSC and offers content for its improvement. Even though multiple studies aim to assess PSC using existing quantitative method tools, the development of this study offers a glimpse of some aspects relevant to nurses' PSC not included in the theoretical framework of the said tools, such as patient involvement, the flow of patients, and service infrastructure.

The frequency and reasons for missed nursing care in Australian perioperative nurses: A national survey

AIM

To describe Australian perioperative nurses' reported frequency and reasons for missed nursing care in the operating room.

DESIGN

Cross-sectional online survey conducted in March-April 2022.

METHODS

A census of Australian perioperative nurses who were members of a national professional body were invited to complete a survey that focussed on their reported frequency of missed nursing care and the reasons for missed nursing care in the operating room using the MISSCare Survey OR.

RESULTS

In all, 612 perioperative nurses completed the survey. The perioperative and intraoperative nursing care tasks reported as most frequently missed included time-intensive tasks and communication with multiple surgical team members present. The most frequently reported reasons for missed care were staffing-related (e.g. staff number, skill mix, fatigue and complacency) and affected teamwork. There were no significant differences in the frequency of missed care based on perioperative nurse roles. However, there were statistically significant differences between nurse management, circulating/instrument nurses and recovery room nurses in reasons for missed care.

CONCLUSIONS

Much of the missed care that occurs in the operating room is related to communication practices and processes, which has implications for patient safety.

IMPLICATIONS FOR THE PROFESSION AND/OR PATIENT CARE

Understanding the types of nursing care tasks being missed and the reasons for this missed care in the operating room may offer nurse managers deeper insights into potential strategies to address this situation.

REPORTING METHOD

Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) Statement.

PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION

No patient or public contribution.

Methods for studying medication safety following electronic health record implementation in acute care: a scoping review

OBJECTIVES

The objective of this scoping review is to map methods used to study medication safety following electronic health record (EHR) implementation. Patterns and methodological gaps can provide insight for future research design.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

We used the Joanna Briggs Institute scoping review methodology and a custom data extraction table to summarize the following data: (1) study demographics (year, country, setting); (2) study design, study period, data sources, and measures; (3) analysis strategy; (4) identified limitations or recommendations; (5) quality appraisal; and (6) if a Safety-I or Safety-II perspective was employed.

RESULTS

We screened 5879 articles. One hundred and fifteen articles met our inclusion criteria and were assessed for eligibility by full-text review. Twenty-seven articles were eligible for extraction.

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION

We found little consistency in how medication safety following EHR implementation was studied. Three study designs, 7 study settings, and 10 data sources were used across 27 articles. None of the articles shared the same combination of design, data sources, study periods, and research settings. Outcome measures were neither defined nor measured consistently. It may be difficult for researchers to aggregate and synthesize medication safety findings following EHR implementation research. All studies but one used a Safety-I perspective to study medication safety. We offer a conceptual model to support a more consistent approach to studying medication safety following EHR implementation.

A management perspective on resilience in healthcare: a framework and avenues for future research

Recent major health shocks, such as the 2014-16 Ebola, the Zika outbreak, and, last but not least, the COVID-19 pandemic, have strongly contributed to drawing attention to the issue of resilience in the healthcare domain. Nevertheless, the scientific literature appears fragmented, creating difficulties in developing incremental research in this relevant managerial field.To fill this gap, this systematic literature review aims to provide a clear state of the art of the literature dealing with resilience in healthcare. Specifically, from the analysis of the theoretical articles and reviews, the key dimensions of resilience are identified, and a novel classification framework is proposed. The classification framework is then used to systematize extant empirical contributions. Two main dimensions of resilience are identified: the approach to resilience (reactive vs. proactive) and the type of crisis to deal with (acute shocks vs. chronic stressors). Four main streams of research are thus identified: (i) proactive approaches to acute shocks; (ii) proactive approaches to chronic stressors; (iii) reactive approaches to acute shocks; and (iv) reactive approaches to chronic stressors. These are scrutinised considering three additional dimensions: the level of analysis, the resources to nurture resilience, and the country context. The classification framework and the associated mapping contribute to systematising the fragmented literature on resilience in healthcare, providing a clear picture of the state of the art in this field and drawing a research agenda that opens interesting paths for future research.

Identifying a list of healthcare 'never events' to effect system change: a systematic review and narrative synthesis

BACKGROUND

Never events (NEs) are patient safety incidents that are preventable and so serious they should never happen. To reduce NEs, several frameworks have been introduced over the past two decades; however, NEs and their harms continue to occur. These frameworks have varying events, terminology and preventability, which hinders collaboration. This systematic review aims to identify the most serious and preventable events for targeted improvement efforts by answering the following questions: Which patient safety events are most frequently classified as never events? Which ones are most commonly described as entirely preventable?

METHODS

For this narrative synthesis systematic review we searched Medline, Embase, PsycINFO, Cochrane Central and CINAHL for articles published from 1 January 2001 to 27 October 2021. We included papers of any study design or article type (excluding press releases/announcements) that listed NEs or an existing NE framework.

RESULTS

Our analyses included 367 reports identifying 125 unique NEs. Those most frequently reported were surgery on the wrong body part, wrong surgical procedure, unintentionally retained foreign objects and surgery on the wrong patient. Researchers classified 19.4% of NEs as 'wholly preventable'. Those most included in this category were surgery on the wrong body part or patient, wrong surgical procedure, improper administration of a potassium-containing solution and wrong-route administration of medication (excluding chemotherapy).

CONCLUSIONS

To improve collaboration and facilitate learning from errors, we need a single list that focuses on the most preventable and serious NEs. Our review shows that surgery on the wrong body part or patient, or the wrong surgical procedure best meet these criteria.

Learning from errors and resilience

PURPOSE OF REVIEW

Learning from errors has been the main objective of patient safety initiatives for the last decades. The different tools have played a role in the evolution of the safety culture to a nonpunitive system-centered one. The model has shown its limits, and resilience and learning from success have been advocated as the key strategies to deal with healthcare complexity. We intend to review the recent experiences in applying these to learn about patient safety.

RECENT FINDINGS

Since the publication of the theoretical basis for resilient healthcare and Safety-II, there is a growing experience applying these concepts into reporting systems, safety huddles, and simulation training, as well as applying tools to detect discrepancies between the intended work as imagined when designing the procedures and the work as done when front-line healthcare providers face the real-life conditions.

SUMMARY

As part of the evolution in patient safety science, learning from errors has its function to open the mindset for the next step: implementing learning strategies beyond the error. The tools for it are ready to be adopted.

Near-miss organizational learning in nursing within a tertiary hospital: a mixed methods study

Background

Near-miss organizational learning is important for perspective and proactive risk management. Although nursing organizations are the largest component of the healthcare system and act as the final safety barrier, there is little research about the current status of near-miss organizational learning. Thus, we conducted this study to explore near-miss organizational learning in a Chinese nursing organization and offer suggestions for future improvement.

Methods

This was a mixed methods study with an explanatory sequence. It was conducted in a Chinese nursing organization of a tertiary hospital under the guidance of the 4I Framework of Organizational Learning. The quantitative study surveyed 600 nurses by simple random sampling. Then, we applied purposive sampling to recruit 16 nurses across managerial levels from low-, middle- and high-scored nursing units and conducted semi-structured interviews. Descriptive statistics, structured equation modelling and content analysis were applied in the data analysis. The Good Reporting of A Mixed Methods Study (GRAMMS) checklist was used to report this study.

Results

Only 33% of participants correctly recognized near-misses, and 4% of participants always reported near-misses. The 4I Framework of Organizational Learning was verified in the surveyed nursing organization (χ² = 0.775, p = 0.379, RMSEA < 0.01). The current organizational learning behaviour was not conducive to near-miss organizational learning due to poor group-level learning (β_GG = 0.284) and poor learning absorption (β_Misalignment= -0.339). In addition, the researchers developed 13 codes, 9 categories and 5 themes to depict near-miss organizational learning, which were characterized by nurses’ unfamiliarity with near-misses, preferences and the dominance of first-order problem-solving behaviour, the suspension of near-miss learning at the group level and poor learning absorption.

Conclusion

The performance of near-miss organizational learning is unsatisfactory across all levels in surveyed nursing organization, especially with regard to group-level learning and poor learning absorption. Our research findings offer a scientific and comprehensive description of near-miss organizational learning and shed light on how to measure and improve near-miss organizational learning in the future.

Supplementary information

The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12912-022-01071-1.

Positive approaches to safety: Learning from what we do well

Historical and current methodologies in patient safety are based on a deficit-based model, defining safety as the absence of harm. This model is aligned with the human innate negativity bias and the general philosophy of health care: to diagnose and cure illness and to relieve suffering. While this approach has underpinned measurable progress in healthcare outcomes, a common narrative in the healthcare literature indicates that this progress is stalling or slowing. It is important to learn from and improve poor outcomes, but the deficit-based approach has some theoretical limitations. In this article, we discuss some of the theoretical limitations of the prevailing approach to patient safety and introduce emerging, complementary approaches in this field of practice. Safety-II and resilience engineering represent a new paradigm of safety, characterized by focusing on the entirety of work, with a system-wide lens, rather than single incidents of failure. More overtly positive approaches are available, specifically focusing on success-both outstanding success and everyday success-including exnovation, appreciative inquiry, learning from excellence and positive deviance. These approaches are not mutually exclusive. The new methods described in this article are not intended as replacements of the current methods, rather they are presented as complementary tools, designed to allow the reader to take a balanced and holistic view of patient safety.

Strength of Improvement Recommendations From Injurious Fall Investigations: A Retrospective Multi-Incident Analysis

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this study was to examine the strength of improvement recommendations proposed after investigation of fall incidents in health care facilities that result in major injuries.

METHODS

This study was conducted using a retrospective multi-incident analysis design. The study setting was 4 tertiary teaching hospitals, 1 subacute rehabilitation facility, and a residential aged care facility in a metropolitan health district in New South Wales, Australia. Ninety-eight injurious fall incidents during a 2-year period (2015-2016) were investigated. Recommendations were grouped into 3 categories: strong (including environmental modifications, equipment, workflow or process redesign), medium (including changes in communication or documentation processes, staffing numbers and/or skill mix, education to address identified knowledge deficits), and weak (including alerts/warning/labels or expected practice without any associated policy or procedure).

RESULTS

The majority of the incidents (34.7%; n = 34) occurred between 1300 and 1859 hours, 65.3% (n = 64) occurred in the patient's room, and 79.4% (n = 81) of the injuries were fractures. There were 224 recommendations made for 79 incidents, and 19 incidents did not have any recommendations. The average number of improvement recommendations proposed per incident investigation was 2.3 (SD, 2.1; range, 0-9). Nineteen (8.5%), 80 (35.7%), and 125 (55.8%) recommendations were classified as strong, medium, and weak, respectively. Half of the investigative teams included representatives from more than one professional group. There were a significantly greater number of medium recommendations made by multi-disciplinary teams compared with single-disciplinary teams (odds ratio, 1.83; 95% confidence interval, 1.05-3.21). There was no significant difference in the number of strong and weak recommendations made between the 2 teams.

CONCLUSIONS

This study found that only 8.5% of recommendations were classified as strong. This suggests that a major challenge lies in formulating robust recommendations; hence, efforts should focus on enhancing the strength of improvement recommendations.

Second-victim Experience and Support Desire Among Nurses Working at Regional Levels in China

AIM

To describe and analyse the degree of second victim syndrome and the desire for supports among nurses working in regional hospitals in China.

BACKGROUND

The evidence on the prevalence of second victim among healthcare workers remains inconsistent and have rarely focused on the regional level.

METHODS

A quantitative, descriptive, survey-based, online, cross-sectional study was conducted among 1,194 nurses in three regional hospitals.

RESULTS

A total of 918 (76.88%) nurses, who reported have had experienced patient safety incidents, were selected for the final analysis. The mean score for the Chinese version of the Second Victim Experience and Support Tool (C-SVEST) was (65.58±10.05). Psychological distress (15.91±2.99) and practice distress (15.26±4.32) had the highest score. The mean score for the desired form of support was (4.29±0.614). The option 'the opportunity to get guidance and suggestions for future work' was rated the most desired.

CONCLUSION

Nurses working at the regional level reported a similar degree of second victim experience and support desire, while the prevalence was much higher.

IMPLICATIONS FOR NURSING MANAGEMENT

The second victim phenomenon has become increasingly complex and challenging, and deserve more attention. Not only Safety-I, abut also Safety-II approaches are suggested to integrated to patient safety.

An Investigation of Radiation Treatment Learning Opportunities in Relation to the Radiation Oncology Electronic Medical Record: A Single Institution Experience

Purpose

A modern radiation oncology electronic medical record (RO-EMR) system represents a sophisticated human-computer interface with the potential to reduce human driven errors and improve patient safety. As the RO-EMR becomes an integral part of clinical processes, it may be advantageous to analyze learning opportunities (LO) based on their relationship with the RO-EMR. This work reviews one institution's documented LO to: (1) study their relationship with the RO-EMR workflow, (2) identify best opportunities to improve RO-EMR workflow design, and (3) identify current RO-EMR workflow challenges.

Methods and Materials

Internal LO reports for an 11-year contiguous period were categorized by their relationship to the RO-EMR. We also identify the specific components of the RO-EMR used or involved in each LO. Additionally, contributing factor categories from the ASTRO/AAPM sponsored Radiation Oncology Incident Learning System's (RO-ILS) nomenclature was used to characterize LO directly linked to the RO-EMR.

Results

A total of 163 LO from the 11-year period were reviewed and analyzed. Most (77.2%) LO involved the RO-EMR in some way. The majority of the LO were the results of human/manual operations. The most common RO-EMR components involved in the studied LO were documentation related to patient setup, treatment session schedule functionality, RO-EMR used as a communication/note-delivery tool, and issues with treatment accessories. Most of the LO had staff lack of attention and policy not followed as 2 of the highest occurring contributing factors.

Conclusions

We found that the majority of LO were related to RO-EMR workflow processes. The high-risk areas were related to manual data entry or manual treatment execution. An evaluation of LO as a function of their relationship with the RO-EMR allowed for opportunities for improvement. In addition to regular radiation oncology quality improvement review and policy update, automated functions in RO-EMR remain highly desirable.

Significance of incident reports by medical doctors for organizational transparency and driving forces for patient safety

BACKGROUND

Incident reporting is an effective strategy used to enhance patient safety and quality improvement in healthcare. An incident is an event that could eventually result in harm to a patient. The aim of this study is to re-evaluate the importance of reporting by medical doctors to improve quality in healthcare and patient safety.

METHODS

We conducted a retrospective analysis of the reported incidents registered in our institutional database from April 1st 2015 to March 31st 2019, classified according to eight variables proposed by the National University Hospital Council of Japan, to determine the type of incidents and their potential harm to patients.

RESULTS

Registered reports totalled 43,775, approximately 8% of which arise annually from medical doctors in clinical departments. Incidents with higher impact on patients have significantly increased the rate of reporting by medical doctors. The most frequent types of report overall concerned medication incidents, followed by infusion lines, drainage-tube devices, cure, examination, and treatment outside the operating room. The most frequent reports by medical doctors involved operation-related incidents, followed by cure, examination, treatment outside the operation room, and medications.

CONCLUSION

Reporting by medical doctors reflects the organizational transparency and the driving forces behind patient safety and quality improvement in healthcare. Efforts toward seamless improvement in patient safety and quality at our hospital continue apace.