Safety culture in health care teams: A narrative review of the literature

Abstract

Aim: Explore the recent literature to examine the factors that affect safety culture within health care teams.

Background: Health care organisations must understand and improve their safety culture. However, safety culture is a complex phenomenon which interacts with a myriad of factors, making it difficult to define, measure and improve.

Evaluation: A comprehensive search strategy was used to search four major databases. Peer-reviewed which were published in English between 2006 and 2017 and presented research studies related to safety culture in health care teams were included. A narrative analysis was undertaken.

Key issues: Issues relevant to the definition, measurement and improvement of safety culture, the impact of teamwork and communication on safety culture, the role of leaders and accountability are explored.

Conclusion: The above themes inform our understanding of developing, measuring and sustaining safety culture in health care teams. However, further research is warranted to accurately understand how to measure and improve safety culture.

Implications for nursing management: To support a safety culture, initiatives to facilitate effective communication between nurse practitioners and other health care professionals must be introduced. Nurse managers should adopt leadership strategies that will support nurses' psychological safety and create a just culture.

Keywords: health care quality improvement; health care teams; patient safety; safety culture.