In the last few years, the way we talk about patient safety has started to shift. Thanks to our ability to observe, study, evolve, adapt and learn, we have gained enough information and knowledge to begin addressing the safety of patient care and the working conditions within healthcare. We have gained an understanding of what […]
Author: Suzette Woodward
I am Suzette Woodward - I am a PICU nurse and have studied safety at a national level for over 20 years and have loved every second of it. I have a doctorate in Patient Safety. Thank you for reading my blog.
the future of patient safety
In Patient Safety Now I assert that the future of patient safety requires us to do 3 things Lets look at the first one. Look at safety differently. Professor James Reason famously said over twenty years ago, ‘we cannot change the human condition, but we can change the conditions under which humans work’ These conditions […]
Patient Safety Now
“The easy understandable and completely wrong answer to an incident is to blame those who made the mistake. The correct response is to redesign systems, so that errors are acknowledged, detected, intercepted and mitigated.” This quote could have been written today, but was in fact written in the British Medical Journal published on the 18 […]
third book
Just in case you have been wondering why I have not posted for a while. I am writing my third book. So I am a little distracted! I have also been doing lots of lovely presentations, workshops and masterclasses on safety I and safety II, just culture and psychological safety. Learning tons. So over the […]
Work as imagined and work as done
This is a blog which is part of a series of blogs linked to my second book which can be found here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Implementing-Patient-Safety-Addressing-Conditions/dp/0815376863 Work-as-done The things that happen frequently in the daily activities of every day clinical work is coined by those that study human factors as work-as-done. In healthcare people adapt and adjust their actions […]
Implementation
This is another blog in the series linked to my second book which can be found here: Part two focuses on the theories and concepts described in part one and explores how we can turn these into practice i.e. how we can practically use them to improve the safety of patient care. It explores the methods […]
complex adaptive systems
This is a blog which is part of a series of blogs linked to my second book which can be found here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Implementing-Patient-Safety-Addressing-Conditions/dp/0815376863 Complexity science has evolved in part from systems theory and aims to help us understand what constitutes the complex system (and complex adaptive system) and to identify the common characteristics. Complexity science can […]
Three models of safety
This is part of the series of blogs which provide a synopsis of my second book which can be found here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Implementing-Patient-Safety-Addressing-Conditions/dp/0815376863 In part 1 we explore the latest concepts and theories starting with the three models of safety. There is a recognition that strategies for managing safety in highly standardised and controlled environments such […]
Maternity safety
The Independent reports today on the issues of safety in maternity units citing the CQC’s chief inspector of hospitals, Professor Ted Baker, who told MPs on the Commons Health and Social Care Committee that he was concerned about the safety of mothers and babies in some maternity units which had persistent problems. “Those problems are […]
Bringing safety II to life
Now is the time to turn theory into reality. Over the last five years I have been studying and writing about new approaches to safety. I have set that out in both my books and in particular my second book below. It has also been reiterated and explored by a growing number of patient safety […]
Patient Safety Now 