Science and patient safety

Science and patient safety.

Patient safety and rocket science.

To cite: McCulloch P. BMJ Qual Saf Published Online First: [please include Day Month Year] doi:10.1136/ bmjqs-2015-004863 ‘This safety stuff, it’s not rocket science’. Many readers of this journal will undoubtedly have heard this sentiment expressed by their clinical colleagues. The article by Kemper et al shows just how widely this impression of patient safety misses the mark. This high-qualit...

Disturbing the Doxa of Patient Safety; Comment on “False Dawns and New Horizons in Patient Safety Research and Practice”

In a recent edition of this journal, Mannion and Braithwaite provide a succinct analysis of the emergence, and ultimately limited impact, of what they term the current ‘Safety I’ movement in healthcare. They describe the arc of this field from denial, through engagement via mechanisms and approaches imported from other industries, to the current situation where, despite ‘best efforts,’ error ra...

The Rise of Patient Safety-II: Should We Give Up Hope on Safety-I and Extracting Value From Patient Safety Incidents?; Comment on “False Dawns and New Horizons in Patient Safety Research and Practice”

Who could disagree with the seemingly common-sense reasoning that: “We must learn from the things that go wrong.”? Despite major investments to improve patient safety, relatively few evaluations demonstrate convincing reductions in risk, harm, serious error or death. This disappointing trajectory of improvement from learning from errors or Safety-I as it is sometimes known has led some research...

The science of patient safety: implications for oncology nursing practice.

Patient safety is one of the most frequent terms used in health care today. Patients and their families are, first and foremost, focused on receiving effective and safe care, and oncology nurses strive to incorporate clinical evidence into day-to-day practice. This article provides a road map on how to incorporate emerging patient safety science into daily clinical practice to best serve patien...