Article Text
Abstract
Background The concept of patient safety culture (PSC) has increasingly been used in the development of patient safety. However, no theoretical framework on the nature of the underlying phenomenon has been created. Multiple characterisations of the key dimensions of PSC exist, but they yield little theory on patient safety culture or its relation to patient safety. The authors propose a dynamic and multilayered construct of patient safety culture and illustrate the critical dimensions at each layer.
Conclusions PSC can be defined as the willingness and ability of an organisation to understand safety as well as the willingness and ability to act on safety. Patient safety requires controlling and steering the organisation, and being mindful of the social processes and psychological phenomena.
- Safety
- patient safety culture
- safety management
- organisational culture
- psychological model
- human factors
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Footnotes
Funding The Finnish Work Environment Fund, Eerikinkatu 2, FI-00100 Helsinki, Finland.
Competing interests None.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.