Important professional qualities of patient safety specialists

Abstract

The study of individual characteristics of the patient safety culture was conducted in various Ukrainian health care facilities using the questionnaire of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's (AHRQ). The characteristics of the patient safety culture were analyzed by taking into account the length of service, membership of respondent to medical or nursing staff, and the profile of therapeutic or surgical activity. The essential professional qualities of patient safety specialists and the categories of persons who are the most suitable candidates for the training of patient safety specialists were defined. It was noted that training specialists to ensure patients safety, taking into account professionally essential qualities, becomes especially relevant in connection with the transition from the culture of blaming individuals for mistakes to the practice of a fair culture, in which mistakes are not considered as a personal oversight, but as an opportunity to improve the system and prevent future harm. It was found that the nursing staff rated patient safety on wards lower than in hospital. A greater risk of adverse event reporting was found for surgical workers and a reduced risk of adverse event reporting for workers with 21 years of experience or more compared to workers with five years of experience or less. Based on the conducted research, it was concluded that the most suitable candidates for training patient safety specialists would be surgeons with 5 years of experience, who are critical as for patient safety in their units and prone to disclose adverse events.