The Lucian Leape Institute at the National Patient Safety Foundation released a report last week focusing on the health and safety of the health care workforce and calling upon health care organizations to initiate broad organizational changes to reduce physical and psychological harm to health care workers. Through the Eyes of the Workforce: Creating Joy, Meaning, and Safer Health Care contends that patient safety is inextricably linked to health care workers’ safety and well-being because caregivers who suffer disrespect, humiliation, or physical harm are more likely to make errors or fail to follow safety practices.
The report details vulnerabilities in the system and the costs of inaction:
- Emotional abuse, bullying, and even physical threats are often accepted as “normal” conditions of the health care workplace.
- Production and cost pressures in health care have reduced intimate, personal caregiving to a series of demanding tasks performed under severe time constraints, detracting from what should be joyful and meaningful work.
- More full-time employee workdays are lost in health care each year (due to illness or injury) than in industries such as mining, machinery manufacturing, and construction.
This is the third in a series of reports on issues that the Leape Institute has identified as top priorities in ongoing efforts to improve patient safety. Read the executive summary here.