Building a Strong Safety Culture

What Is Safety Culture?

Safety culture is the shared beliefs, values, and behaviors around safety in your workplace. In a strong safety culture:

• Everyone feels responsible for safety
• People speak up about concerns without fear
• Safety is prioritized even when busy
• Learning from mistakes is encouraged
• Leadership actively supports safety initiatives

Research shows that healthcare facilities with strong safety cultures have fewer patient safety events and better staff engagement scores.

Your Role in Building Safety Culture

Be a Safety Leader You don’t need a management title to be a safety leader. You can:

• Model safe behaviors consistently
• Encourage coworkers to follow safety procedures
• Speak up when you see unsafe practices
• Participate actively in safety meetings and training
• Share ideas for safety improvements

Communicate Effectively About Safety

• Use clear, respectful language when discussing safety concerns
• Focus on the behavior or situation, not the person
• Ask questions: “Help me understand why we’re doing it this way”
• Offer solutions when pointing out problems
• Thank others when they practice good safety habits

Real-world example: A nurse notices a coworker consistently skipping hand hygiene between patients. Instead of ignoring it or complaining to others, she approaches the coworker privately and says, “I noticed you’ve been really busy today. I wanted to remind you about the hand hygiene policy – I know when I’m rushed, it’s easy to forget.”

Supporting Your Coworkers

Create Psychological Safety Make it safe for others to report concerns by:

• Listening without judgment when someone reports a problem
• Thanking people for speaking up about safety issues
• Asking “What can we do to prevent this in the future?” instead of “Who’s to blame?”
• Supporting coworkers who make safety reports

Share Knowledge and Experience

• Teach new employees about safety procedures
• Share lessons learned from your own experiences
• Discuss safety topics during informal conversations
• Mentor others in safe practices

Continuous Improvement

Learn from Every Incident When safety incidents occur:

• Focus on system improvements, not individual blame
• Ask “What conditions led to this happening?”
• Look for patterns across multiple incidents
• Implement changes to prevent similar incidents

Stay Current with Safety Information

• Attend all required safety training
• Read safety updates and communications
• Participate in safety committees if available
• Stay informed about new safety technologies and procedures

Provide Feedback on Safety Programs

• Share your observations about what’s working and what isn’t
• Suggest improvements to safety procedures
• Participate in safety surveys and assessments
• Advocate for needed safety resources

The Connection Between Staff Safety and Patient Safety

Research from multiple studies shows a clear link between staff engagement in workplace safety and patient safety outcomes:

• Hospitals with higher staff engagement scores have significantly better patient safety culture scores
• When staff feel safe reporting workplace safety concerns, they’re more likely to report patient safety events
• Workplace safety programs that address stress and burnout lead to fewer patient care errors
• Strong management support for workplace safety correlates with better patient safety outcomes

Real-world example: A hospital implements a comprehensive workplace violence prevention program. Not only do staff injuries from violence decrease, but patient safety culture scores improve because staff feel more supported and are more willing to speak up about all types of safety concerns.