Safety Culture in Practice: Putting Words into Action

What is safety culture?Safety culture is the aggregation of the beliefs, norms, actions, and attitudes members of an organization have about safety; simply put, it is the way safety is viewed and practiced, or "the way we think about safety around here." 2 In a robust, healthy culture of safety, there is clear communication, teamwork, and openness about errors (both to other health care providers and to patients).Errors are viewed as a natural consequence of human interactions with complex systems, and the causes of such errors are sought rather than individual blame.Components of a healthy safety culture include acknowledgment that medicine is high risk, dedication to patient safety despite that risk, the ability to report without fear of blame or