Opinion
What leaders need to know about patient safety collaboratives IF WE are truly to transform the NHS, to make it the safest health and care system in the world, we must put patients first in everything we do, hear the voice of patients and carers and empower them to become partners in care. Organisations must also assess and improve safety culture, build transparency by encouraging staff to speak up and capitalise on learning. To do all this, effective leadership is crucial. In October, NHS England launched the largest and most comprehensive collaborative improvement initiative in the world: the patient safety collaborative programme. With NHS Improving Quality (NHS IQ) providing a co-ordinating role, 15 academic health science networks (AHSNs) are leading the work to spread best practice, build skills and capabilities in patient safety and improvement science, and focus on actions that can make the biggest difference to patients. Sustainable change Whether building on improvement work already under way or addressing new topics, the objective is to achieve measurable and sustainable change driven by local need. The AHSNs have identified priorities and specific clinical concerns, such as pressure ulcers, deterioration and falls, that are known to cause harm to local populations. Some will work with groups of particularly vulnerable people such as those with mental health problems and look at entire care pathways, beyond the traditional boundaries of acute hospitals. Collaborative members will come together nationally in ‘clinical clusters’ with access to national or international safety experts to share best practice, knowledge and expertise, to accelerate learning and disseminate change ideas. NURSING MANAGEMENT
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Sarah Tilford and Philip Dylak explain how nurses can be fully involved in the NHS improvement initiative
While tackling the leading causes of harm head on is a priority, creating the right conditions and climate for safety is equally important. Effective leadership at all levels is essential to developing a positive safety culture by creating environments in which staff and patients are comfortable voicing concerns, where staff are accountable for their actions, and are respected and treated justly and fairly when acting with good intent. Leaders set the tone and the foundations for operational excellence, the elements of which include communication, teamwork, high quality leadership, transparency and accountability, while paying attention to human factors for safety to allow learning to flourish. NHS IQ and the AHSNs recognise that nurses have a hugely important part to play by engaging in safety improvement to ensure the maximum patient benefit. Nurse leaders are well positioned to
ask questions about board or senior management vision, aims and commitment to safety, to check that safety plans and clinical priorities are aligned with the local collaboratives and national programmes, and to get on board with Sign Up to Safety. The collaboratives will also assist staff to understand better how safety improvement is monitored so as to become more responsive to what the data reveal, to assess how much we improve. With the emphasis on effective measurement and data collection, nurses can shift the safety paradigm from one that is concerned with the measurement of past harm to one in which practitioners have the skills and knowledge to identify the potential for harm, and to take action to prevent it before it occurs. Finally, the empowering effect of social media on local and national campaigns is recognised and will be used to build momentum and accelerate change. Campaigns such as @NHSChangeday and #hellomynameis are examples of what can be achieved when collective strengths are harnessed and when individuals from all disciplines and care settings, patients, carers, staff and whole communities, become involved. Sarah Tilford is a registered nurse and national improvement manager at NHS Improving Quality’s Safety Team Philip Dylak is a registered nurse and patient safety lead at North West Coast Academic Health Science Network
Find out more For more information about the safety collaboratives and contacts at your academic health science network, visit www.nhsiq.nhs.uk/improvementprogrammes/patient-safety/patient-safetycollaboratives For further details of Sign Up to Safety, go to www.england.nhs.uk/signuptosafety February 2015 | Volume 21 | Number 9 11
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What leaders need to know about patient safety collaboratives IF WE are truly to transform the NHS, to make it the safest health and care system in the world, we must put patients first in everything we do, hear the voice of patients and carers and empower them to become partners in care. Organisations must also assess and improve safety culture, build transparency by encouraging staff to speak up and capitalise on learning. To do all this, effective leadership is crucial. In October, NHS England launched the largest and most comprehensive collaborative improvement initiative in the world: the patient safety collaborative programme. With NHS Improving Quality (NHS IQ) providing a co-ordinating role, 15 academic health science networks (AHSNs) are leading the work to spread best practice, build skills and capabilities in patient safety and improvement science, and focus on actions that can make the biggest difference to patients. Sustainable change Whether building on improvement work already under way or addressing new topics, the objective is to achieve measurable and sustainable change driven by local need. The AHSNs have identified priorities and specific clinical concerns, such as pressure ulcers, deterioration and falls, that are known to cause harm to local populations. Some will work with groups of particularly vulnerable people such as those with mental health problems and look at entire care pathways, beyond the traditional boundaries of acute hospitals. Collaborative members will come together nationally in ‘clinical clusters’ with access to national or international safety experts to share best practice, knowledge and expertise, to accelerate learning and disseminate change ideas. NURSING MANAGEMENT
Getty
Sarah Tilford and Philip Dylak explain how nurses can be fully involved in the NHS improvement initiative
While tackling the leading causes of harm head on is a priority, creating the right conditions and climate for safety is equally important. Effective leadership at all levels is essential to developing a positive safety culture by creating environments in which staff and patients are comfortable voicing concerns, where staff are accountable for their actions, and are respected and treated justly and fairly when acting with good intent. Leaders set the tone and the foundations for operational excellence, the elements of which include communication, teamwork, high quality leadership, transparency and accountability, while paying attention to human factors for safety to allow learning to flourish. NHS IQ and the AHSNs recognise that nurses have a hugely important part to play by engaging in safety improvement to ensure the maximum patient benefit. Nurse leaders are well positioned to
ask questions about board or senior management vision, aims and commitment to safety, to check that safety plans and clinical priorities are aligned with the local collaboratives and national programmes, and to get on board with Sign Up to Safety. The collaboratives will also assist staff to understand better how safety improvement is monitored so as to become more responsive to what the data reveal, to assess how much we improve. With the emphasis on effective measurement and data collection, nurses can shift the safety paradigm from one that is concerned with the measurement of past harm to one in which practitioners have the skills and knowledge to identify the potential for harm, and to take action to prevent it before it occurs. Finally, the empowering effect of social media on local and national campaigns is recognised and will be used to build momentum and accelerate change. Campaigns such as @NHSChangeday and #hellomynameis are examples of what can be achieved when collective strengths are harnessed and when individuals from all disciplines and care settings, patients, carers, staff and whole communities, become involved. Sarah Tilford is a registered nurse and national improvement manager at NHS Improving Quality’s Safety Team Philip Dylak is a registered nurse and patient safety lead at North West Coast Academic Health Science Network
Find out more For more information about the safety collaboratives and contacts at your academic health science network, visit www.nhsiq.nhs.uk/improvementprogrammes/patient-safety/patient-safetycollaboratives For further details of Sign Up to Safety, go to www.england.nhs.uk/signuptosafety February 2015 | Volume 21 | Number 9 11
Downloaded from RCNi.com by ${individualUser.displayName} on Dec 03, 2015. For personal use only. No other uses without permission. Copyright © 2015 RCNi Ltd. All rights reserved.
