Patient safety 2 - If we are psychologically safe, children are safer in our care

RCPCH Podcasts

Psychological safety in healthcare settings is the condition in which you feel included, safe to learn, safe to contribute and safe to challenge the status quo - without fear of being embarrassed, marginalised or punished. And it's an essential foundation in building a safety culture.

Individually, feeling psychologically safe improves performance and innovation, while feeling unsafe reduces productivity and harms retention. In a highly productive team, it is about feeling safe to take risks, to learn from each other and to feel resilient and able to tackle the difficult and varying challenges of healthcare with a healthy mindset.

This is the second episode in our patient safety series and features Dr Dal Hothi and Dr Jess Morgan. Learn how you can reflect on your own behaviour, champion effective communication and create a psychologically safe space within your team.

Hosts: Dr Natalie Wyatt, RCPCH Clinical Fellow and Jonathan Bamber, RCPCH Head of Quality Improvement

Produced by 18Sixty

Please be advised that this podcast series contains stories relating to child death and harm. All views, thoughts and opinions expressed belong to the guests and not necessarily to their employer, linked organisations or RCPCH.

If you are a healthcare professional and you are worried that you are suffering with burnout please speak to your team, your GP or Practitioner Health.

Download transcript (PDF)

About the speakers

Dr Dal Hothi is a paediatric nephrologist at Great Ormond Street Hospital. She's also a Director of Leadership Development at the Faculty of Medical Leadership and Management, as well as being an Officer for Lifelong Careers at the RCPCH.

Dr Jess Morgan is a paediatric doctor and Dinwoodie RCPCH Fellow who leads on the RCPCH Thrive Paediatrics Project along with Dal.

About the patient safety podcast series

As doctors we ‘first, do no harm’. However, the systems in which we work are rife with safety issues and resultant harm. In thinking about how to improve this, we have brought together leaders in the field to discuss challenging and thought-provoking issues around keeping our children safe in healthcare settings.

We hope you will be entertained, educated, and energised to make strides in improving the safety of the children that you care for.

To learn more, visit the RCPCH Patient Safety Portal and begin your journey in improving your own psychological safety and that of those you work with.

Links for topics/organisations/papers referenced in this episode

• Dinwoodie
• Thrive Paediatrics at RCPCH
• Amy Edmondson and psychological safety
• Tim Clark’s four stage model of psychological safety
• Freedom to Speak Up (The National Guardian)
• Charles Vincent ("Safety is not defined by the absence of negative outcomes") - The Health Foundation: The measurement and monitoring of safety