Question

A nurse who realized that his colleagues weren't consistently following up on patient results reported the problem to the clinic leadership right away. Which response would be most consistent with a culture of safety?

a) Transferring the nurse to another clinic
b) Writing a letter of commendation for his file
c) Thanking the nurse and asking him to keep quiet about it
d) Placing the item on the agenda for the leadership meeting next year

Answer 1

The correct answer is B. Writing a letter of commendation for his file

Explanation:

In medical contexts, a culture of safety refers to values, attitudes, behaviors, and beliefs from health care workers that allow them to offer quality medical services and promote patient safety. This also implies, in a culture of safety it is necessary to make efforts to protect patient safety while recognizing the efforts of those workers that promote this culture.

According to this, in the case of a nurse who reported inconsistencies from colleagues the best response is "writing a letter of commendation for his file" because in this case, it is important to reward the nurse for identifying and reporting a situation that is against the culture of safety, also actions such as transferring the nurse or asking him to keep quiet do not promote the safety of the patient. Finally, issues on culture of safety always need to be addressed immediately and by placing the issue on the agenda for a meeting next year the issue cannot be solved immediately.