Does 'professionalising' patient safety roles make a difference?
In Australian health services, roles that support consumer safety are a mix of trained specialists, people who evolve on the job and those who struggle through the basics with little opportunity for development.
In the UK, the NHS has created a new role of ‘patient safety specialist’, introduced to bring a more structured, professional approach to patient safety. This evaluation article seeks to understand the professionalisation of patient safety, with implications for the further development of patient safety specialists in the UK and other countries.
Many of the newly appointed NHS patient safety specialists expressed challenges with establishing a clear professional identity. There was, ironically, ambiguity around the scope of the role, which led to confusion within the specialist community and among other healthcare professionals. The role’s novelty also contributed to uncertainties about how specialists should interact with existing patient safety structures.
Despite these challenges, the evaluation found that the patient safety specialists played a crucial role in shaping safety culture. By having dedicated and skilled personnel focused on patient safety, some organisations placed greater emphasis on safety initiatives and fostered a more open dialogue about safety concerns. Successful patient safety specialists often worked closely with clinical and administrative leadership, supporting safety strategies to be integrated into broader organisational priorities and daily work in a way not achieved previously.
The authors identified key tips for successful safety specialist roles:
- Clarify Role Expectations: The authors recommend that the NHS provide clearer guidelines on the expectations and scope of the patient safety specialist role to reduce ambiguity and strengthen professional identity.
- Ensure Dedicated Resources: To maximise the impact of patient safety specialists, organisations must support these individuals with dedicated time to focus exclusively on safety-related tasks.
- Foster Leadership Management: Close collaboration between patient safety specialists and senior leadership is essential for fostering a culture of safety and integrating safety into organisational strategies and operations.
These lessons are useful for countries where qualified patient safety specialists are not yet the norm, but where it is likely that current roles will evolve to be more specialised. Role clarity and consistency appears to be a cornerstone of success, as it is for all roles, particularly for those in quality and safety positions where scope creep is common.
All accessed 10/09/2024:
Martin G et al. Professionalising patient safety? Findings from a mixed-methods formative evaluation of the patient safety specialist role in the English National Health Service. J Health Serv Res Policy. 2024 Aug 2:13558196241268441. doi: 10.1177/13558196241268441