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Safety Culture – What It Means And How To Build A Culture of Safety.

• May 11, 2022

Your safety culture is a reflection of your values and priorities and it’s something that your employees, customers and regulators will assess you on. And with today’s swift-changing business environment a safe work culture can be the most integral component in Organizational Development towards sustainability, governance and compliance initiatives.

While safety is a top priority at all companies, not all of them have imbued a strong safety culture. There are numerous things you can do to develop or improve your current safety practices and it all starts with creating a safety-conscious attitude.

Through this blog post, we’ll take you through the various ways by which you can build and fortify the safety culture in your organization.

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What is a safety culture.

Safety culture results from the shared beliefs, values and behaviors that guide an organization’s approach to creating a safe, healthy and sustainable work environment. Strong safety culture is grounded in a set of values, policies and practices and can be thought of as the collection of the behaviors and actions that every stakeholder take to ensure their safety and that of others.

A good safety culture exists when everyone, irrespective of the position or place, have inculcated a discipline to follow the rules and are inspired to work together for a greater, common good.

It’s the sum of all of the things that go into making a workplace safe, such as:

Safety policies and procedures: These are well-researched and documented guidelines on what one should do in certain situations. For example, they may include instructions for dealing with lifting heavy loads or using machinery safely.

Training & Coaching programs: Both Employees and Management leaders must be trained and upskilled on how to perform their jobs safely, including using equipment properly and be aware of associated risks , hazards, and control measures that are available.

Management commitment and leadership: Management plays a vital role in creating a safety culture by setting expectations for employees to follow safety policies and procedures, providing training when necessary, encouraging workers to use safe work practices on the job and rewarding workers who demonstrate good performance in this area.

10 Ways to Build a Safety Culture That Lasts

The development of a safety culture can be described as a journey, not a destination. It must be effectively managed over time, focusing on continuous improvement and reinforcement of critical behaviors. Here are 10 ways to build a safety culture in your organization.

Create Awareness About Safety Hazards

​​The first step to building a safety culture is to develop your awareness of the risks, hazards and control measures in your workplace. This will help identify and eliminate any potential problems before they become serious.

Once you have a clear picture of what could go wrong, you can start planning ways to prevent workplace incidents and improve the safety of your employees.

Make Safety a Habit!

In a siloed organization, it’s easy for people to fall into habits that put them at risk — like working alone or taking shortcuts when they’re pressed for time. Implementing behavioural change needs to happen from top to bottom starting with Leadership followed by in-person interventions with employees and contract workers.

This means that everyone needs to understand the concept of Behaviour Based Safety Observations, how to report incidents , take appropriate actions when they see a safety violation or potential hazard, and ensure that they follow all safety rules and regulations.

If you want people to report non-compliance, then it’s important that they know what constitutes a non-compliance. That means training them on what it means to identify compliance issues, recognize risks, know the hazards and consequences and take corrective measures appropriately.

Integrate Safety KPIs into Job Responsibilities

Make sure that everyone in the organization understands their role in creating a safe culture. This is especially important for frontline managers and supervisors. Create and integrate KPIs into OKRs and set safety-specific goals with recognition and rewards.

You need to ensure that every one understands the importance of safety and see it as part of their job description. You can do this by having regular safety meetings , where you discuss new safety policies and procedures and the actions every individual needs to follow according to the safety guidelines.

Reinforce the Right Behaviors

Your company needs to focus on behavior — what people do, not just what they say. You have to get people engaged at the highest levels of your organization, from executives to managers and supervisors, who set the tone for others on safety issues. You may want to refer some of the proven frameworks for habit-formation and behavioural change have been used by HR Managers and Coaches in instilling the right mindset for safe work culture.

Create A Feedback Loop

Feedback loops help us identify problems before they become big issues. If you want your organization’s culture to be strong and healthy, create feedback loops between employees and management through regular meetings or check-ins. Nir Eyal’s Hook model is an interesting insight in to habit-formation.

Develop a “No Blame” Culture

All too often, workers are afraid of retaliation when they point out potential problems or unsafe conditions in their work environment. This fear can lead to silence by employees who witness unsafe practices or situations that could lead to injury or illness. If you want your organization’s safety culture to succeed, you need people who feel comfortable bringing up concerns without fear of retribution.

When employees know they won’t be blamed for taking reasonable steps to keep themselves and others safe, they are more likely to report hazards and injuries, even if they were involved in them. Employees should feel comfortable reporting unsafe conditions without fear of retaliation from supervisors or peers — no matter who was at fault.

Recognize and Reward Positive Behaviors

You need incentives and rewards for those who promote safety within your organization. It’s important that these rewards be based on actual results, such as reduced injuries or illnesses, rather than simply rewarding everyone equally regardless of their performance in promoting safe practices.

You can provide employees with an online safety management tool like Safetymint through which they can report the safety incidents , violations and unsafe practices in the workplace. This will also help you easily keep track of the employees who promote safety practices and strive to make the workplace safe.

Develop a Top-Down Approach

The best way to develop a strong safety culture is through leadership from the top down. If leaders don’t support safety by example, their employees won’t either.

If you’re a leader and want to create a safety culture in your organization, start by asking yourself: What is my personal safety commitment? Can I model it for others? If not, why not? What can I do to change that?

Similarly, make sure that the other people at the top management are taking action as well. Ask them what they’re doing to build a safety culture in their departments or teams — and hold them accountable for their actions.

Regularly Measure the Level of Safety

An excellent way to measure progress is through quarterly surveys of employees about their perception of safety in their work environment. You can also conduct anonymous interviews with employees from different levels of your organization to find out what’s working well and where there are gaps in communication or training.

It’s important to measure performance against key indicators that reflect the health of your organization’s culture — such as turnover rates and injury rates. These metrics will help you identify areas where improvements are needed so that everyone feels safe at work every day.

It can be hard to keep track of the safety violations, conduct root cause analysis and measure the safety levels. This is where a simple, cloud-based tool like Safetymint can solve the problem.

With the guest user licenses offered by Safetymint, every employee can have the Safetymint mobile app installed on their smartphones and report safety issues instantly from wherever they are with minimal effort. This way, you can make it easy for the employees to develop a better working environment and also make use of the various features in the application to assess and identify hazardous or high-risk areas in your workplace.

Request a free trial of Safetymint to get started.

K Pradeep is the Founder and Head of Product Development at Safetymint

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5 ways to strengthen your safety culture.

How to Improve Safety Culture: A Comprehensive Guide

It’s one thing to develop a workplace safety program, but developing a workplace safety culture is another matter entirely.

A safety program can be built in a few meetings. A whole new culture involves diligent work and ongoing cooperation at all levels. Here’s how EHS departments can build successful safety cultures and improve on the cultures they already have.

Building and Improving Safety Culture in the Workplace

So, what is safety culture in the workplace?

Safety culture is a product of individual and group efforts in the workplace. It’s the attitude or beliefs that employees share in relation to the handling of safety issues in the workplace.

Fostering a proactive approach towards workplace safety is fundamental to cultivating a culture of safety. The definition of safety culture and how it applies in the workplace is about more than just establishing safety policies; it’s also about how you handle safety issues when they arise.

How well do you listen to your employees when they bring up problems? Successful workplace safety cultures are two-way streets. In today’s world of social media and business savvy, employees are no longer willing to tolerate a “my way or the highway” approach.

Cooperation and openness are the foundations of a positive safety culture in the workplace. You can put in all the policies you want. If you don’t prove to your employees that you’re willing to step up to the plate to keep them safe, those policies won’t mean much.

Here are three things you need to start building a strong safety culture.

1. Forward-Looking Accountability

Many people think accountability is synonymous with blame. When accountability is done right, it has an entirely different focus.

Backward-looking accountability is the type that involves blame. In this type of accountability, you’re more focused on assigning blame to someone for making a mistake than preventing the mistake from happening again. Sometimes, blame is helpful. But if it devolves into a witch hunt, it’s no longer a learning experience.

Instead, strive for forward-looking accountability. This type of accountability focuses on the changes that need to be made to prevent the same mistake, rather than reprimanding an individual for making a mistake.

2. Management

Everyone likes to believe they’re a good boss. But building and improving safety culture starts by looking within.

Companies with strong safety cultures aren’t reactive. They don’t need to be. Safety is a part of daily activity–and a part of day-to-day management that leadership recognizes as an ongoing responsibility.

Unfortunately, many managers get too caught up in safety metrics to move beyond reactivity. Metrics do play an important role in your safety culture–they tell you what you need to improve. But if you want to improve those metrics, you have to look past them. Look at root causes and see how you, as a manager, can help eliminate problems before they arise.

3. Strong Relationships

In case you hadn’t already guessed, strong relationships are the bedrock of any lasting effective safety culture.

If your employees don’t believe that they can have honest conversations with you, they won’t feel comfortable coming to you with problems. And if they don’t feel comfortable coming to you with problems, nothing will ever change.

The good news is that being a good leader and building good relationships go hand-in-hand. Don’t just point out problems–point out good work as well. Seek understanding and listen actively when problems arise. Seek feedback on your own effectiveness–and act on the feedback you receive.

Reducing Workplace Incidents

Workplace safety initiatives and injury prevention are worthy of serious investments. By creating a safe workplace and making it your top priority, your organization can prevent injuries and improve operational efficiency. You can also help employees stay informed about various ways to keep the environment safe through proper workplace safety techniques. By following the tips below, you can help ensure your staff is committed to building a safe work environment for everyone.

• Visualizing safety: By posting flyers in common areas – kitchen, printing areas, stock rooms, and maintenance halls – you can help your staff understand proper safety techniques and provide them with different resources. Hang posters where your employees can see them, so they clearly know where the first aid kit is located, along with fire extinguishers, fire doors, and fire alarms. Also, designate fire wardens to give updated information and check extinguisher expiration dates.
• Demonstrating safety:  When you have employee meetings, take a little time to have someone come in to discuss ergonomics, proper lifting, and ways to avoid hazards in a workplace atmosphere. You should have flyers made with details on workplace safety and proper lifting or draft an email with details on proper lifting techniques, how to dispose of hazardous materials and fire prevention safety. Demonstrating proper ways of disposing toner waste cartridges or chemicals is another great way of showing how to follow employee safety procedures.
• Teaching responsibility: Make sure to delegate team leaders to help with routine checks to ensure there are no hazardous areas. They should report things such as seeing overloaded outlets, spills or waste cartridges that haven't been disposed of properly. This can include things like improperly throwing liquids or glass in the trash.
• Using ergonomic tools: Employees should be given access to adjustable monitors; wrist supports and adjustable keyboard trays. Reducing neck strains can help cut down on headaches and migraines.
• Promoting sustainability:  Encourage your employees to recycle by having clearly labeled bins at their disposal. That way you’ll know your staff is doing their part to protect the environment. They should also make sure all recyclable materials are separate from trash, and both should be taken out and disposed in their proper receptacles. Housekeeping staff should also be on board with your recycling efforts.

How to Evaluate a Safety Culture in 3 Steps

What makes a safety culture succeed? Is it a list of policies? Your PPE? Your number of incidents?

The drivers behind a   successful safety culture   are complex and how to improve the safety culture within your organization involves a multifaceted approach. . They essentially boil down to how you communicate safety and how your employees perceive safety in relation to management priorities. As such, evaluating your safety culture is all about assessing context clues.

Here’s how to evaluate a safety culture in three easy steps. 

1. Review Your Programs and Policies

When determining how to improve the safety culture in your organization, the first step is to take a long, hard look at your health and safety procedures, along with your safety programs and policies . This sounds simpler than it is in practice.

We’re talking about taking a deep dive into all of your documentation. These are the documents that spell out the real lay of the land for your communications channels, work order processes, incentives, and   incident investigation , among other processes.

This is also the home of your program language, which is more important than you think. Remember, your programs are the first tool of safety communication. If your programs are designed in a way that is inherently punitive and the language reflects this, you’re already at a disadvantage when trying to encourage a culture of openness and communication.

2. Communicate with Leadership and Employees

This leads into the second step, which is communicating with leadership and employees. This is your first opportunity to take a step toward active culture assessment, and it needs to be handled with care.

A   culture of employee engagement   is critical to the health of your safety culture, but the   role of management   is more formative than many people realize. Employees tend to follow their manager’s lead, even through cues that managers don’t realize they’re sending. For example, ordering all employees to wear hard hats in a certain area falls flat if managers never wear hard hats in that area.

The key at this step is to assess   how   you’re communicating safety . In other words, what messages are your managers sending, regardless of whether or not they mean to? And how are your employees interpreting those messages?

3. Assess Your Safety Training

Finally, take a good look at your   safety training, as this is one of the most overt forms of safety communication you have in your toolkit.

Training employees demonstrates your commitment to safety, but it also gives employees clues as to the flavor of your commitment. If trainings are rote and tend to be doled out punitively, it tells employees that you think of safety as a box to be checked, not a   core value .

Five Ideas for Promoting a Culture of Safety at Work

When it comes to cultivating a culture of safety at work, the right training procedures can make all the difference in the world. Safety tools come in all shapes and sizes. Here are five techniques to help your team adopt a responsible attitude so safety becomes ingrained in your company culture.

1. Practice “Good Housekeeping”

Workplace safety is greatly affected by the tidiness of the work environment. From   workplace ergonomics   to literal tidiness, workers can be made aware of “good housekeeping” practices through a well-planned campaign. Use posters, meetings, and/or social media and emails to reinforce the overall campaign. These safety rules should be clearly communicated and consistently enforced to ensure they become a natural part of daily routines. 

2. Perform Regular Job Safety Analysis

A job safety analysis (JSA) is a breakdown of every step involved in completing a particular task, along with the hazards that are present during each step. Finally, the actions your employees can take to mitigate those hazards can reduce incidents and improve overall safety.

3. Schedule “Toolbox Talks”

Toolbox talks   are casual gatherings that focus on one small aspect of safety. They are very specific talks, and are often led by an employee. These are not long meetings, but rather 15-minute gatherings so everyone can bone up on particular safety issues you’d like to point out.

4. Rally the Troops Around PPE for a Month

The personal protective equipment (PPE) in use at your company is necessary when hazards just can’t be removed or avoided. Make sure everyone remembers the protocol for their PPE: what to use and when, plus proper maintenance.

5. Don’t Leave Your Contractors Out of the Conversation

Contractors who perform their work at your job sites are part of your safety culture, too. Everything that applies to your regular employees can be applied to your contractors as well, when it comes to safety.

Should Remote Workers Be Part of Your Safety Culture?

On-site hazards aren’t the only threats to your safety culture. If you have remote workers, you still have the obligation of keeping them safe on the job. Keeping remote workers safe on the job is an up-and-coming challenge that many companies find they are not prepared for – or even realize they need to be prepared.

When employees work from home, you’re no longer able to control the quality of their work environment. Things like a suitable workspace, smoke detectors, and the absence of trip or safety hazards aren’t guarantees. But some states deem that this lack of ability to regulate the work environment is irrelevant.

Workplace Safety Issues for a Remote Workforce

You might not realize it, but telecommuters are covered by your workers' compensation insurance in some states. If a worker trips and becomes injured while on their way to check an email or breaks a leg tripping over a dog while trying to retrieve a briefcase from the car, your company could be held liable.

These examples sound a bit far-fetched, but similar instances   have been ruled compensable . If you have remote workers, you need to consider the safety of their work environment. The first place to start is by checking your state’s workers' compensation laws and requirements, as these will vary by state.

Best Practices for Work at Home Safety

Managing the safety of remote workers is new territory for many companies. The following best practices can help you integrate your telecommuters into your organization's safety culture.

• Conduct physical inspections of an employee’s remote work environment and spot potential hazards.
• Define the boundaries of a home office. Without establishing these boundaries, employers could be held liable for any safety incidents on the employee’s property.
• Have your remote workers work a specific schedule. Not having regular working hours (regardless of when those hours are worked) could also put you at liability for any incident that occurs within the employee’s workspace.
• Maintain a specific list of employee responsibilities and scope of work. This prevents an employee from claiming an injury in their workspace unrelated to their work.
• Consider offering flexible remote work rather than a permanent work-from-home position. Having workers on-site for part of their work week limits the amount of time they’re working in their own, unregulated environment.
• Read this guide   to learn more about safety training strategies and tools.
• Require remote workers to attend safety meetings and get them involved in safety-related campaigns, even if it’s via Zoom.
• Provide telecommuters with a list of safety practices they can put to use in their home workspace, such as best practices for sitting at their desk, taking breaks, and doing safety sweeps of their work area.
• Offer recommendations for ergonomic chairs, mouse pads, and other office equipment. If it’s in the budget, offer to reimburse all or a portion of their purchase. It’s the same as purchasing equipment for your on-site workers, plus it helps reduce the risk of workers incurring an injury while working from home.

Why It’s Important to Focus on Remote Worker Safety Now

Remote workers may not play a role in your organization right now, but that may change in the near future. Studies predict that by the year 2020,   nearly half of the country’s workforce   will operate remotely in some capacity.

Of course, the number of remote workers in your company will largely depend on your industry and job requirements. But even if you don’t foresee a burgeoning remote workforce, don’t think you’re completely immune to it. There’s a   growing demand among workers   for more flexible hours and work arrangements, which has heralded an equally growing flexibility of companies to offer such benefits.

No one’s forcing you to join these companies, but not doing so could mean becoming unable to attract or retain top talent. This is a huge problem for EHS leaders because high turnover and low employee satisfaction affect the   strength of your safety culture. It’s in your best interest to start preparing for a potential shift now before it becomes a focus later.

Getting your remote workforce involved in your company’s safety culture should be as much of a priority as keeping your on-site team safe on the job. Their   productivity and performance   can still be affected by off-site hazards, which impacts your company as a whole. It’s up to you to keep them engaged, even when you’re not able to see them in person.

Two Safety Culture Models to Try in Your Organization

What kind of safety culture do you have? Like any other form of culture, safety cultures are quite diverse, as are the approaches to culture. The way in which you think about culture, and the way in which you enact culture, has a profound impact on how your organization handles safety.

Having the right framework is a good place to start, especially if you’re looking to improve your safety culture. The LEAD safety culture model and the Dupont Bradley Curve are safety culture models that offer a markedly different approach (leadership in one, mentality in the other). Regardless of what fits your organization, both options offer a smarter way to conceptualize culture–and realize growth.

The LEAD safety culture model focuses on the skills that make an effective safety leader, summarized by the acronym LEAD:

• Leverage (recognizing achievements, providing clarity, and coordinating work)
• Energize (inspire, empower, and assist workers in growing new safety skills)
• Adapt (learning from past performance to build safety resilience)
• Defend (teaching vigilance, monitoring work, and driving accountability)

Each of these skills drives a particular mindset, which can be categorized in one of two dimensions: promote/prevent or flexibility/stability. A promotion focus is about emphasizing achievement and proactivity, while a prevention mindset is about taking a careful approach to work. A flexibility mindset means workers are more receptive to change in the workplace, while a stability mindset means that workers draw on established ways of doing things to plan work in advance.

The LEAD safety culture model is broken into four phases:

At each phase, the model focuses on learning from the workforce and leveraging their support to communicate between management and employees and get employees involved in implementing a safer work culture.

DuPont Bradley Curve

The DuPont Bradley Curve is an old safety model proposed in 1994 by Vernon Bradley, when DuPont CEO Ed Woolard put together a team to develop a system that would allow sustainable and lasting improvements in organizational safety.

The idea is to help organizations understand where their safety culture is in development, where their current culture falls short, and what they can do to grow.

The curve is displayed on an XY graph, with the X-axis showing relative culture strength and the Y-axis showing injury rates, the curve sloping down from the high point of the Y-axis to the furthest point of the X-axis.

In the Bradley Curve, there are four stages of organizational safety maturity:

• Independent
• Interdependent

In the reactive stage, organizations believe accidents are inevitable, safety is based on instinct, and no one takes responsibility. In the dependent stage, people view safety as following the rules, and responsibility for safety is placed solely on safety overseers. In the independent stage, employees and managers at every level take individual responsibility for safety, believing safety is achieved when everyone looks after themselves. Finally, in the interdependent stage, employees and managers take collective action as teams, believing safety is part of the shared culture of an organization and that a zero-injury rate is an achievable goal.

In this sense, the Bradley Curve is very much a behavior-based model . It looks to improve safety by changing safety behavior over time.

These safety culture models have one key feature in common: they rely on an organization taking action to see cultural growth. And to do that, you need tools that tell you where you stand.

How to Change the Safety Culture in Your Organization: Helpful Tips

With these safety culture examples and best practices, including deeper insights on how to improve safety culture at the workplace, you’ll want to apply creativity, patience and an open mind. This will help get the safety message across. Remember: cultivating a safety culture at work is a lot like growing a garden: it takes time, consistent effort and all the right conditions in place for growth.

If you have more questions about how to build a truly great culture, don’t hesitate to check out our safety blog for more useful ideas and tips.

Katy Lyden, MS, OHST

Katy Lyden is a Domain Analyst and EHS Subject Matter Expert for StarTex Software, the company behind EHS Insight. Prior to her current role, Katy spent 17 years successfully leading EHS programs for several large companies within the manufacturing industry. Katy is a Navy veteran, retired Emergency Medical...

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Leadership: how to build an ideal safety culture.

Updated: Jan 13, 2022

Safety at work is about more than just avoiding lawsuits. The idea of fostering a “safety culture” at work has shifted to the forefront of the safety industry, and it is now a priority for many environmental, health, and safety (EHS) professionals. Steve Roberts, PhD, a senior partner at Safety Performance Solutions, recently discussed in a webinar the leadership principles he thinks are necessary for building the ideal safety culture in the workplace.

What does the ideal safety culture look like?

An ideal safety culture begins with actively caring, from an individual, leadership, and organizational perspective, according to Roberts. Actively caring, he said, means moving beyond simply caring about others, to acting on that caring or sense of responsibility.

At a leadership level, employers should be maintaining a focus on safety even when safety records are good, actively participating in safety activities, and including the safety activities of employees in their performance reviews. They should be conducting safety walkarounds, asking employees what they need to do their jobs safely, and collaborating with employees to find efficient solutions for safety hazards based on collected observation data.

On an organizational level, Roberts said the ideal safety culture should manifest in the following areas:

• Leadership – Senior leaders perform behaviors that improve the culture and demonstrate safety as a value.
• Management Systems – Organizational management systems support safe behavior and are consistent with organizational values.
• Behavior – People consistently perform safe and actively caring behaviors.
• Employee engagement – Employees are involved in making valuable contributions and in determining, analyzing, and supporting safe behavior.
• Conditions – The physical environment, meaning the interaction of equipment, facilities, procedures, and people, supports safe behavior.
• People – Employees have positive perceptions of themselves, their coworkers, and the organization, and they are willing to actively care for safety.

Leadership principles

Roberts spoke about five different leadership principles for making this ideal safety culture a reality.

Understand system influences

Many factors contribute to injuries. If there is a breakdown in the overarching safety culture, that could cause issues in equipment and facilities, then management systems, which could lead to at-risk behavior, and then employee injuries. Employers must identify the contributing factors to the at-risk behavior, and keep in mind that it is easier to redesign the workplace environment than the person.

Focus on behaviors and the process

Overemphasizing outcome measures can damage perceptions, meaning safety issues can get overlooked if a company only prioritizes meeting their goals. Roberts suggested implementing a behavioral observation and feedback process (BOFP), which could take shape in a formal or informal process. A formal BOFP would involve having employees turn in observation cards, data analyzation, and focus interventions where they are most needed, whereas an informal BOFP focuses on improving hazard recognition and interpersonal safety communication skills. Employers should also be using process data to drive safety improvement:

• Employees observe critical behaviors, which are behaviors employees believe will prevent serious injuries if implemented.
• Checklists are completed and collected, trends are identified, and the most critical behaviors are targeted for follow-up.
• Target behaviors are analyzed to determine why they are occurring, and an ABC analysis (actions, behaviors, consequences) is completed.
• Interventions are developed, which may include environmental or system changes, to increase safe and decrease at-risk behavior.
• Safety improvements are communicated to the workforce providing motivation to continue collecting data.

Focus on behaviors and their consequences

Employers should keep in mind that there are tasks that have natural rewarding consequences and many that do not, and safety is just a continuous fight with human nature. At-risk behaviors are often more comfortable, convenient, and faster than safe ones, and they are often reinforced by the work culture. Most importantly, at-risk behaviors rarely result in negative consequences powerful enough to discourage their performance. The risky behavior can even yield positive outcomes that convince people it may be okay to engage in them again. Roberts also stressed knowing why a company safety record is the way it is. If an employer has a great record, they should know what behaviors support that, and if they have a bad record, they should figure out why and work to fix it.

Understand and search for hazards

We all take calculated risks, and what is acceptable varies across different situations and environments. People do not always use the correct information to make decisions. Roberts pointed out that risk perceptions and hazards are different because perceived risk is the combination of the hazard itself and emotion. While employees may feel as if they know what is more or less dangerous, statistical data may prove otherwise. He said that hazards and error-likely situations are predictable, manageable, and preventable, and that errors are more likely to occur during reassembly rather than disassembly. Employers should keep this in mind when deciding where to allocate safety resources.

Provide appropriate resources

Employers need to show up, they should visit site locations in person instead of relying on others’ reports, and understand that some may be motivated to keep some information hidden. They should get their hands dirty by getting out of the meeting rooms and into the workspaces to see the first-hand conditions, equipment, and procedures employees must use. Be prepared to pay for and provide needed tools, equipment, personnel, and other resources to encourage jobs to be performed safely.

Make sure to communicate. Incorporate employee input when determining and updating rules, procedures, and equipment. Respond effectively to employee concerns and suggestions, and build trusting relationships by increasing one-on-one communication throughout the organization. Lastly, do not blame people for system problems. The identification of at-risk behavior should be at the beginning of the analysis, not the end, Roberts said. Consider how employees might currently be inappropriately rewarded for risky behavior, and consider all the factors at play, such as training, production pressure, excessive overtime, formal and informal rules and procedures, and tools and equipment.

Our behaviors bring safety culture to life

Roberts suggested that employers ask themselves these questions:

• How will I show that as a leader, I’m committed to safety?
• How will I ensure organizational systems motivate safe behavior?
• How will I set behavioral expectations and give feedback to promote safe behavior?
• How will I keep employees engaged in safety improvement activities?
• How will I foster a safe work environment for all employees?
• How will I make sure employees have the knowledge, skills, and attitudes to promote safe performance and actively caring?

If employers can answer all of these questions well, or work to answer them, then they will be on their way to having the ideal safety culture in their workplace, according to Roberts. He stated that safety culture should be a priority in businesses and should not be considered separately from the rest of a company’s culture.

“There shouldn’t be a separate safety culture,” said Roberts. “Safety should be integrated into the overall corporate culture, but since it often is not, I think safety often needs to be highlighted.”

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Improving Safety Culture in the Workplace (Step-By-Step Guide)

Workplace safety is more than box-checking and the occasional safety signs. If you want to build a safer environment for your employees, improving safety culture in the workplace is the place to start. According to research, at least.

A study by OSHA revealed that employers who implemented a strong safety and health management system noted a “transformed workplace culture” . Besides, they experienced “higher productivity and quality, reduced turnover, reduced costs, and greater employee satisfaction” .

Another study published by the Journal of Safety Research showed that a safety culture intervention (creating more and better safety-related interactions) improved performance:

“Results at follow-up indicated a marked improvement in HSO performance, interaction patterns concerning safety, safety culture indicators, and a changed trend in injury rates. These improvements are interpreted as cultural change because an organizational double-loop learning process leading to modification of the basic assumptions could be identified.”

What is safety culture really? 

Engaging your employees in safety is about encouraging them to take personal responsibility for one another’s safety. It’s not an easy process, but it’s well worth the effort.

When safety is a top priority, employees on all levels share the company’s safety values. Everyone on your team perceives workplace safety as part of their job responsibilities.

The trick here is that it’s easy for your safety culture to turn sour. If you’ll allow us to paraphrase, the road to strong safety culture is paved with good intentions… 

So, what does a negative safety culture look like? Here are a few examples along with ways to prevent bad safety culture habits.

So, how do you develop consistent safe work practices at your company?

It usually boils down to creating a safety culture improvement plan. This helps you encourage your workers to be more proactive about preventative procedures. And it helps you implement the appropriate safety measures across the board. Safety becomes a standard procedure, rather than an afterthought.

How to implement a sustainable safety culture

So, now you know a bit more about the characteristics of positive and negative safety cultures. In this section, we will outline how you can build a sustainable safety culture in your workplace.

The key elements of strong safety culture were outlined in the 1999 IOM report To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System . Here they are: 

• The actions at management level, and the policies that they implement to improve the safety of their workers.
• The extent of the participation of workers in safety planning.
• That workers had ready availability to any necessary protective equipment.
• The way that group norms influenced the operation of safety practices.
• The socialization process with which the company inducted new employees.

These are the basics of a successful health and safety workplace culture. All the facets you need to look at. But, your organization is unique, and, so, your safety initiatives must be adapted to it. True culture change requires a flexible, considerate approach. 

8 steps to build your safety culture

With this in mind, here are the steps to build a positive safety culture:

• Create accountability and well-defined responsibilities for your team
• Outline policies, goals and plans for the future . This ensures the continued growth and success of your safety culture.  
• Assess your workplace’s current attitude towards health and safety. Pinpoint any weaker areas and safety issues, and evaluate ways that they can be rectified.
• Put a strong incident report system in place. At the same time, work towards building your employee’s trust in the system. Workers need to know that their issues will be listened to and dealt with, and their ideas will be heard. They should not fear undue punishment.
• Keep your team motivated . Praise the successes and strengths of your operations, too.
• Put a safety council in place. Then, schedule in regular meetings to discuss potential safety improvements.
• Improve your workforce’s safety knowledge . Anything from daily safety talks to monthly training is a good idea. It will help encourage safe behavior among your employees.
• Simplify your current incident management and investigation process.

Culture of safety examples

Positive safety culture example.

British Sugar Plc. is a great safety culture case study . 

The company had a strong safety record. But, in the space of just one year, it experienced three deaths of its workers. It was evident that they needed a behavioral change. 

The safety leadership team started a wave of culture change from the top. First, they assigned health and safety responsibilities to all directors. Then, managers were asked to report monthly to the company board. Annual health and safety-related targets were set and tracked. Finally, working partnerships with employees and trade unions were strengthened.

The company worked hard to improve their workplace safety culture. And the results followed soon:

• A 43% reduction in injury-related time lost, over a two-year period
• A 63% decline in major issues over one year
• A significantly increased understanding of the directors regarding key health and safety risks

Negative safety culture example

A negative safety culture example can be found in the report by the IOM that we mentioned earlier.

At the time of the research, as many as 98,000 people in the US died in hospitals every year, due to preventable medical errors. One of the report’s main conclusions was that “the majority of medical errors do not result from individual recklessness or the actions of a particular group… more commonly, errors are caused by faulty systems, processes, and conditions that lead people to make mistakes or fail to prevent them.” 

For example, patient-care units in hospitals were stocked with full-strength drugs. Unless diluted, these drugs were toxic, which led to numerous deaths due to human error. Deaths that could be prevented.

Measuring your safety performance 

Measuring and monitoring the impact that your safety culture improvement plan is vital. This ensures that your health and safety standards continue to thrive and your workers remain happy and healthy at work. And it’s also the way to achieve continuous safety improvement in the future.

First, be sure to set clear, definitive safety targets for you all to strive towards. This is a key way to help everyone feel involved and share in the success. Then, you can move to the question at hand: 

How do you measure your safety performance?

You can measure your safety performance by making health and safety feedback a habit. Useful feedback can be obtained in a variety of ways:

• Undertake a routine daily analysis of your safety performance .
• Study employee satisfaction . You can find a great survey template from HSE here . This will help you gain a more nuanced understanding of the employees’ feelings about your current workplace safety. And this will make it easier to decide what changes or improvements to focus on.
• Do follow-up surveys . This is a useful tool to gauge the success of your improvement efforts.
• Organize weekly progress updates . You can brief your team about the progress towards meeting your safety culture goals. This helps you all stay on track.

Creating a safe place to work is the first step. It’s the least that you can do for your employees. And, with strong safety culture in place, you can become more proactive about health and safety. You can move beyond lagging indicators such as DART and TRIR.

So, if you and your management team are looking to commit to improving safety culture in the workplace, there’s no time like the present. So, go for it!

Further Reading

If you are wanting to learn a bit more about improving your employees’ safety mindset in the workplace, we’ve provided a few links to some useful further reading to help you gain a better understanding of any specific areas, or answer any queries that you may have.

• Safety topics free download: Safety Awakenings
• Engaging with Safety Culture; A review of current thinking and practice
• Health and safety week ideas : MEM – Safety week starter kit
• Health and safety champion role : LMP – How-To Guide: Health and Safety Champions
• Health and safety goals : Tilsatec – Setting Safety Goals for 2020
• Management commitment to safety statement : OSHA – Management Commitment and Employee Involvement
• Safety Meeting Ideas : 100+ Short Workplace Safety Topics from [A-Z] – Free Download
• Safety games : Top 15 Workplace Safety Games Ideas For Adults + Download Links

Related Posts

18 safety slogans that rhyme – make your safety training stick, 8 safety leaders you’ll want to follow in 2021, safety culture perception surveys: the complete guide.

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Why a Culture of Safety is Important

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Healthcare facilities need to foster and promote a strong culture of safety that includes a commitment to worker safety, provision of and adequate access to safety and personal protective equipment, and extensive training efforts that utilize protocols requiring specific safety actions. A culture of safety describes a commitment to core values and principles by organizational leadership and healthcare workers to recognize the inseparable integration of worker safety and patient safety (The Joint Commission 2012). This includes recognizing and reporting high-risk exposures and activities, developing and implementing prevention and control standards, policies, and strategies with worker input to mitigate and eliminate hazards, and providing sustained resources to address safety concerns. Management and healthcare workers must work together to achieve this continuous effort which contributes to a culture of safety. Focusing efforts on a sound and sustained safety culture will lead to and support better outcomes in patient healthcare and safer working conditions for healthcare workers.

Better patient outcomes

• Decreased adverse events such as patient falls, medication errors, hospital readmissions.
• Improved quality of care and increased patient satisfaction.

Better healthcare worker and organizational outcomes

• Fewer healthcare worker injuries, including sharps-related and other injuries, better job satisfaction, improved staff retention, reporting of safety events, and reduced burnout (Hessels & Wurmser, 2020; McHugh et al., 2011).
• Reduced costs associated with decreased adverse events (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2019).
• Essential for High Reliability Organizations (e.g., safety and quality-centered, patient and worker centric) (Vaismoradi, 2020; Weaver et al., 2020) including sustained accreditation.

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Nurse leadership: Sustaining a culture of safety

Helena e.m. haskins.

1 Department of Health Studies, University of South Africa, Pretoria, South Africa

Lizeth Roets

Associated data.

Full data are available in the researcher’s custodian university.

Nurse leaders are essential to manage nursing practices that affect patient safety; therefore, they must create and sustain a sound safety culture in a diverse cultural environment.

To describe the specific actions required by nurse leadership to enhance the sustainability of a safety culture in hospitals and among a diverse nursing team, ultimately improving patient outcomes.

Two hospitals in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) were selected purposively, based on the diversity of the nursing team.

A quantitative design, using Reason’s safety culture framework and Ekenedo’s behavioural safety model, formed the theoretical background of this study to identify the safety culture and positive work environment that exist among culturally diverse nurses. Thirty-four nurse managers and 417 nurses were conveniently selected to participate. Various instruments were used to gather hospital outcomes and other data from respondents pertaining to their demographics, patient safety, positive work environments and safety culture.

Findings received from the nursing team describe the correlation between patient safety, a diverse nursing workforce and positive work environment affecting a safety culture and promoting positive patient outcomes.

Nurse leaders’ integration of specific actions to address the system, as well as diverse nursing teams’ behavioural practices, create a patient care environment that adequately contributes to safety culture practices and enhances positive patient outcomes, which are essential for a culture of safety.

Contribution

The study contributes by providing a structured integration of specific actions for nurse leaders to sustain practices ensuring positive patient outcomes.

Nurse leaders are essential to manage nursing practices that affects patient safety; therefore, they must create and sustain a sound safety culture in a diverse cultural environment such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

With healthcare evolving, there is growing attention and focus on patient safety, ultimately requiring nurse leadership practices that follow through on patient safety events and manage nursing actions that affect patient safety.

A diverse healthcare workforce further complicates matters, and nurse leaders (also referred to as nurse managers) face increased challenges in sustaining patient safety (Padgett et al. 2017 ).

The behavioural safety culture model of Ekenedo defines the specific skills and decisions that nurse leaders must apply in their departments to sustain a sound safety culture (Besnard et al. 2018 ; Golda 2013 ).

A nurse leader has many responsibilities, such as instilling a culture of safety; assessing, reducing, mitigating and managing safety risks in a caring environment; maintaining a safe patient allocation based on the acuity and skill mix of the nurses; evaluating team performances; sharing and educating patient safety measures; and managing risky behaviours among nursing staff (Bronkhorst, Tummers & Steijn 2018 ; Edgar 2017 ).

The hospital climate (or ‘positive work environment’, used interchangeably) can be described as the ‘perceived and recurring patterns of behaviour, attitudes and feelings that characterise life in the organization’ (Gea-Caballero et al. 2021 ). Because nurses spend most of their time in the work environment, facilitating a safe, positive work environment is essential to ensure the safety of patients and staff.

Evidence shows that nurse leaders have a direct impact on the perceived climate based on their commitment to a culture of safety, communication, fostering teamwork, productivity, scheduling and recognition of nurses’ achievements that support patient safety (Farokhzadian, Nayeri & Borhani 2018 ). It is essential for nurse leaders to understand how their nursing team perceives the hospital climate to proactively address patient safety events in order to promote positive patient outcomes

There are numerous positive work environment tools that the nurse leader can use to determine how their nursing team perceives their work environment, and in the UAE many healthcare organisations apply the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators nurse surveys annually (Alsalam et al. 2018 ). Ultimately, this information may provide the nurse leader with supporting information to establish how these factors affect the culture of safety in the unit.

A culture of safety was established as the result of a number of events that occurred in the aviation and nuclear industries (Al-Lawati et al. 2018 ). However, a culture of safety specifically related to healthcare can be defined in terms of measuring the different dimensions appropriate to clinical settings (Hogden et al. 2017).

Creating an institutional safety culture is not based on a new set of rules but rather on a philosophy that should be embraced by the healthcare team to prevent harm in the workplace (Hogden et al. 2017). Healthcare organisations with a positive safety culture are characterised by communications founded on mutual trust, shared perceptions of the importance of safety and confidence in the efficacy of preventive measures (Hodgen et al. 2017 ).

Jilcha and Kitaw ( 2016 ) and Ma and Rankin ([sa]) list five components required for a sound culture of safety to be applied in healthcare, namely (1) an informed culture, (2) a flexible culture, (3) a reporting culture, (4) a learning culture and (5) a just culture. Applying them in practice allows the nurse leader to address all components in a clinical care setting.

According to Reason’s Culture of Safety Framework (Jilcha & Kitaw 2016 ; Ma & Rankin [sa]), a learning culture is vital to enable nurses to practise safely; thus, nurses’ orientation, regular in-service training programmes and unit-specific competency training should be offered. In creating an environment of learning, nurses are empowered to assess their own learning needs and practise safely (Oliveira et al. 2017 ).

As technology advances, so does the complexity of systems within healthcare; therefore, various subjective safety indicators are required to determine the nursing teams’ safety performance (Mirrah et al. 2020 ).

Currently, there is no benchmarking among the UAE hospitals; thus, quality and services are measured against international hospitals, which do not have the same cultural backgrounds and issues. Healthcare facilities should ultimately benchmark against other facilities in the same country in order to constantly work towards enhanced practices and processes for improved patient safety and patient outcomes.

Patient safety is the reduction of risks associated with injury or harm to a patient to a minimal acceptable level (World Health Organization 2018 ). Pelzang and Hutchinson ( 2018 ) claim many patients are affected by adverse events such as poor documentation practices, falls, insufficient hand hygiene (HH) and hospital-acquired pressure injury (HAPI). Some experience lasting damage, while others could potentially die.

Safety culture practices are not always sustained in hospitals (Alsalam, Bowie & Morrison 2018 ), despite nurses being exposed to various development, planning and education projects on standards of care and safety practices. Although hospitals use nursing-sensitive performance indicators, the variances reported have had a negative impact on patient outcomes (Alsalam et al. 2018 ).

On average, in the two hospitals investigated, patient fall rates have increased from 0.1% to 0.4%, HAPI incidences increased from six to eight cases per month, HH compliance was at 85% and the Nursing Admission Assessment (NAA) completed within the specified 24 h was at 90%.

Nurse leaders must understand the synergy between the factors in the hospital climate and safety culture on patient safety to identify the impact it has on positive patient outcomes (Churruca et al. 2021 ; Willmott & Mould 2018 ).

Therefore, describing the specific actions required by nurse leaders to facilitate a safety culture and improve patient outcomes may be advantageous to address cultural diversity among the nursing team, as well as promoting a positive work environment and managing safety factors affecting the safety culture.

The purpose of this study is to describe specific actions required by nurse leaders to enhance the sustainability of a safety culture in hospitals and among a diverse nursing team, ultimately improving patient outcomes.

Reason’s safety culture framework and Ekenedo’s behavioural safety model (Golda 2013 ; Jilcha & Kitaw 2016 ; Ma & Rankin [sa]) formed the theoretical background of this study. Utilising these two theoretical frameworks provided insight into how the study hospitals compared to Reason’s safety culture and the Ekenedo behavioural safety model to clarify reasons for the nursing team not sustaining safe practices.

Research design

A quantitative design was utilised (Creamer 2018 ) to identify and describe the hospitals’ safety culture and describe the specific actions that may facilitate a sustainable safety culture among the nursing team that contributes to improved patient outcomes.

Population and sample

Six hospitals in Abu Dhabi fall under the umbrella of the Department of Health, of which two were purposively selected to gather data, because these hospitals are known to have a diverse nursing workforce. Forty-six nurse managers and 1597 nurses work in these hospitals, of which 34 nurse managers and 417 nurses were conveniently selected to participate. Based on a 95% confidence interval (CI), only 310 nurse respondents were required for a satisfactory sample size.

Data collection tools

Checklists were used to gather hospital outcome data, and different questionnaires were used to collect data from nurses and nurse managers pertaining to demographics, patient safety, a positive work environment and safety culture.

Reliability and validity

Reliability.

Reliability was achieved by adapting an already validated checklist developed by the Abu Dhabi Health Services Company (SEHA) to obtain hospital outcomes data. The self-developed questionnaire, based on a thorough literature review, was pretested after being assessed by a scientific committee of experts and a statistician. The response rate for the nursing respondents’ questionnaires during the pretest was 100%, which is exceptional considering an acceptable response of 80% is described in the literature (Creamer 2018 ). The descriptive results from Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS; IBM Corporation, Armonk, New York, United States) on all ‘culture of safety questions’ demonstrated a mean of above 3, the standard deviation for all questions ranged between 0.59 and 1.0 and Cronbach’s alpha was 0.877. These results are indicative of the high reliability of the data.

Criterion-related validity was ensured as the researcher sought to establish a relationship between the scores on an instrument and some external construct by comparing the hospital outcome data with the data obtained from nurses and nurse leaders regarding patient safety questions.

Face validity was applicable as the different questionnaires for the nurses and nurse leaders were pretested to determine nurses’ and nurse leaders’ culture of safety and positive work environment practices, and the influence of cultural diversity on the safety culture was compared with the hospital data.

Data collection methods

The chief nursing officers in each of the study hospitals were recruited to provide patient outcome data recorded on the checklist pertaining to the following aspects: completion of the NAA within 24 h, fall rates, HAPI incidence rates and HH compliance rates.

Research coordinators were appointed in both study hospitals to distribute the information leaflets, questionnaires and consent forms to the participants. Various sessions were scheduled to allow participants to attend the sessions based on their convenience. In total, 900 nurses (600 from hospital A and 300 from hospital B) and 34 ( n = 46) nurse leaders attended the various information sessions, A 4-week period was provided to return questionnaires in the sealed boxes available on each unit. These boxes were then sealed and collected for data analysis.

Ethical considerations

Ethical clearance to conduct this study was obtained from the Health Studies Higher Degrees Committee of the University of South Africa (reference number: REC – 012714-039) and the two hospitals’ institutional ethics review boards (reference numbers: REC – 26.02.2015 [RS-357]; REC – AAH/EC-03-15-002). Individual respondents provided written informed consent. The ethical principles of beneficence, nonmaleficence, justice, human dignity, privacy and confidentiality of information, as described by Creamer ( 2018 ), were adhered to.

Statistical Package for Social Sciences 2010 was used to analyse the data received from 417 (46.3% response rate) nurses and 34 nurse leaders (73.91% response rate).

Biographical data of nurses and nurse leaders

Attum et al. ( 2020 ) state that privacy and gender are very important in Islam, and gender was thus an important aspect in this context, where the majority of the nursing team were female ( n = 345, f = 81.03%; n = 26, f = 76.45%).

As the majority ( n = 257; f = 61.33% nurses and n = 33; f = 97% nurse leaders) of respondents fell in the 35–64 age group, it was indicative of a sound competence and skills mix ( Table 1 ). The literature describes older nurses as more experienced and skilled because of exposure to clinical settings (Bridges et al. 2019 ).

Gender and age of nurses and nurse leaders.

Source: Haskins, H.E.M., 2019, An action plan to sustaining a culture of safety for positive patient outcomes, doctoral thesis, University of South Africa, Pretoria, viewed n.d., from http://hdl.handle.net/10500/26185

The data in Table 2 indicates the nurse respondents were from diverse cultural backgrounds; the majority ( n = 164) were from the Philippines, followed by India ( n = 155). However, nurse leaders were predominantly from Jordan ( n = 7; f = 21.21 %), South Africa ( n = 7; f = 21.21 %), the Philippines ( n = 5; f = 21.21%) and India ( n = 5; f = 21.21%). The least represented were nurse leaders from Egypt, Finland, New Zealand and Romania ( n = 1; f = 3.03%). Patient admissions data revealed that 75% of patients treated in both study hospitals A and B to be Emirati and 25% non-Emirati (from 19 different nationalities encountered in hospitals). As a result of this diversity, language barriers may have existed because of the majority of nurses and nurse leaders not being able to converse in the Arabic language ( n = 338 nurses and n = 22 nurse leaders). Only 70 nurses and 10 nurse leaders spoke an Arabic dialect – Emirati, Jordanian, Syrian, Sudanese and Palestinian. This illustrates that important patient information may not be retrieved and shared because of language deficits, and because competent translators may not be readily available (Basu, Costa & Jain 2017 ).

Nationalities of nurses and nurse leaders.

Source : Haskins, H.E.M., 2019, An action plan to sustaining a culture of safety for positive patient outcomes , doctoral thesis, University of South Africa, Pretoria, viewed n.d., from http://hdl.handle.net/10500/26185

Communicating across cultural boundaries increases the risk of misunderstanding, and it is further compounded when dealing with complex scientific and medical information (Brooks et al. 2019 ). Patient information is in English, but only 5.8% of the nurses’ home language is English, which could have an impact on effective communication and how the nurses apply safety best practices. This finding reflects that nurse leaders should facilitate strategies to assist nurses to improve their English proficiency, to use specific tools to communicate with patients with limited English proficiency and to ensure translators are available in the units (Basu et al. 2017 ; Brooks et al. 2019 ).

Cultural perceptions of nurses and nurse leaders

Nurses ( n = 339; f = 81.5%) and nurse leaders ( n = 28; f = 82.5%) indicated that the cultures of the nursing team and patients directly affect patient safety. The reasons mentioned by the nursing team as to why their own and patient cultures affect patient safety included differences in education, language barriers and cultural values among the nurse and the patient.

The UAE has more than 200 different nationalities residing in the country; thus, healthcare professionals should become aware of the cultural influences and health behaviours related to illness and recovery and translate that awareness into culturally congruent care (Brooks et al. 2019 ).

The UAE cultural structure consists of each family, traditionally bound by obligations of mutual assistance to their immediate relatives and the tribe as a whole. The culture and traditions of the UAE are grounded in the Islamic heritage of the Arab region, and they seek the Qur’an as a healing source in times of psychological and spiritual distress (UAE webpage).

Cultural aspects can impede patient care plans; therefore, healthcare professionals must understand what drives the patient and family towards healing. Although the Crescent of Care model was developed to guide the care of Arab Muslim patients and describes the holistic care nurses should practise in a daily plan of care, it is not evident in practice in the UAE (Lovering 2012 ).

Privacy and gender separation are important aspects of Islam, and nurse leaders need to ensure the environment is appropriate and include nurses of the correct gender according to patients’ genders (Attum et al. 2020 ; Hassan et al. 2020 ). Appropriate signs need to be displayed, indicating the allowed gender to use a specific room or enter that room to provide care. Knocking on the door before entering to ensure female Muslim patients are appropriately covered is another important cultural principle (Attum et al. 2020 ).

To ensure that nurses are able to apply transcultural nursing care in practice, senior nurse leadership must confirm that the orientation programmes and ongoing education address cultural differences and expectations (Kaihlanen, Hietapakka & Heponiemi 2019; Uman, Edfors & Jakobsson 2020 ).

Culture of safety and nurse leadership

Organisations with a positive safety culture are characterised by communications founded on mutual trust, shared perceptions of the importance of safety and confidence in the efficacy of preventive measures (Hodgen et al. 2017 ). Jilcha and Kitaw ( 2016 ) and Ma and Rankin [sa] list five components required for a culture of safety, namely (1) an informed culture, (2) a flexible culture, (3) a reporting culture, (4) a learning culture and (5) a just culture.

Authors indicate a definite association between a safety culture, a positive work environment and patient safety outcomes in healthcare facilities (Khoshakhlagh et al. 2019 ; Kumbi et al. 2018 ).

A five-point Likert scale was used for nurses to grade their perception of the impact a positive work environment, cultural aspects and patient safety have on the sustainment of a culture of safety in the clinical setting.

Nurse leaders must establish an environment of transparency and engage the nursing team in patient safety and safety improvement activities, regularly share patient performance outcome data, ensure open communication, enforce teamwork and provide a supportive environment to speak freely about safety concerns on units, to ensure mutual respect and recognition of nurses’ safety efforts (Khoshakhlagh et al. 2019 ; Kumbi et al. 2018 ).

The web diagram in Figure 1 shows nurses did not perceive their work environment as positively supporting patient safety, which is a significant safety concern for nurse leaders to consider (Murray, Sundin & Cope 2017 ). Moreover, safety culture forms part of larger organisational processes, and nurse leaders must review these in terms of the nurses’ perceptions of the hospital’s environmental safety features that may influence their overall safety performance (Murray et al. 2017 ).

Nurses’ perception of a positive work environment affecting patient safety.

As illustrated in Figure 2 , approximately 57% of nurses confirmed that a punitive environment does not exist within the facility. However, 43% of nurses reported nurse leaders follow a punitive approach if an incident occurred, and 33% disagreed that nurse leaders proactively address system concerns affecting patient safety. This is of concern because a culture of safety is unsustainable if nurse leaders do not address systems and processes.

Relation between nurses’ perception of nurse leaders’ proactive system review versus punitive approach.

Based on the nurses’ perception, nurse leaders have a primary responsibility to identify process changes to sustain a sound safety culture in the clinical areas. Nurse leaders must proactively identify system gaps and ensure a safe care environment that could influence patient safety; thus, they need to be visible in the units and have sound decision-making concern for patient safety events (Golda 2013 ).

As illustrated in Table 3 , the majority of nurse respondents agreed ( n = 279) that nurse leaders are visible and supportive in the units to enable them to address patient safety concerns. However, 134 nurses disagreed ( n = 64; f = 15.4%) and remained neutral ( n = 70; f = 16.8%), which indicates nurse leaders are not always visible and supportive in addressing a safe care environment; such behaviour could have a potential negative impact on patient safety.

Nurse leader’s visibility and support to ensure a safe care environment.

Source: Haskins, H.E.M., 2019, An action plan to sustaining a culture of safety for positive patient outcomes , doctoral thesis, University of South Africa, Pretoria, viewed n.d., from http://hdl.handle.net/10500/26185

It is essential for nurse leaders to apply ‘just culture’ principles in practice to eliminate patient safety concerns, address system issues and manage unsafe practices among the nurses (Haskins 2019 ; Paradiso & Sweeney 2019 ). Nurse leaders must (1) follow clear disciplinary processes, (2) frequently review system issues, (3) manage system defects through frequent processes review, (4) use structured performance reviews to manage nurses’ behaviour affecting patient safety, (5) obtain data from the incident reporting system allowing them to manage patient safety issues, (6) support hospital management in addressing system issues and (7) manage incidents through appropriate quality methodologies.

It is evident in Figure 3 that most nurse leaders ( n = 26 of n = 33) applied the basics of ‘just culture’ in managing nurses’ behavioural practice gaps. However, a third of the respondents disagreed, indicating that nurse leaders did not utilise ‘just culture’ practices within the context of patient care.

Nurse leaders’ just culture practices.

Nurse leaders have a significant role and responsibility for ensuring the sustainment of a culture of safety despite a diverse nursing workforce responsible for nursing care. An analysis of the data within this research study revealed that nurse leaders must take specific actions to sustain a culture of safety, thereby improving patient outcomes.

English proficiency testing of nurses prior to employment must be assessed, and remedial opportunities to provide basic Arabic or any other relevant language proficiency training when joining a hospital or any other healthcare facility where diversity exists must available. This will allow for communicating among a diverse nursing team (Al-Harasis 2012 ; Oducado et al. 2020 ).

Specific tools to communicate with patients with limited English proficiency or availing competent translators to assist with the communication are required. Translators might be a feasible solution to the challenges experienced; however, availability and cost implications might be challenging in resource-poor healthcare environments (Blay et al. 2018 ).

Nurse leaders must ensure that induction programmes include cultural training to enable the diverse team to provide culturally congruent care. Induction programmes and continuous professional development opportunities focusing on basic healthcare education and communication in more than one language will be useful to allow patients and professionals to understand one another, contributing to a safety culture (Noonea et al. 2020 ; NSW Report [sa]).

It is important that nurse leaders should create and facilitate a positive work environment (hospital climate) that promotes leadership support and visibility, reward and recognition, effective communication, teamwork, safe staffing and patient allocation for staff to ensure patient safety. This will facilitate a work environment where nurses feel free to engage, speak up and participate in safety events that might affect patient safety (Debika, Kumar & Kumari 2020 ).

Nurse leaders must practise a culture of safety through sharing information related to patient safety. They must be flexible in managing patient safety and report incidents or concerns that could have an impact on patient safety. They have to apply a ‘just culture’ to manage behavioural choices and system safety as well as providing opportunities for a continuous learning culture among their diverse nursing team. This will lead to nursing team being proactive, engaged, empowered and educated on safety event prevention that will facilitate sustainability of a safety culture (Churruca et al. 2021 ).

Nurse leaders must furthermore create a ‘just’ culture by following a clear disciplinary process. They must continuously review system concerns affecting safety, manage system defects through frequent process reviews, use structured performance reviews to manage nurses’ behaviour affecting patient safety and obtain data from the incident reporting system to manage patient safety issues. They also have to support hospital management in addressing system issues and manage incidents through appropriate quality methodologies. It is therefore essential for nurse leaders to practise ‘just’ culture to allow the nursing team to feel engaged, educated and empowered to manage their own practice and speak up if safety concerns are present in the care environment and thus model optimal clinical outcomes (Fend, Willoughby & Jackson 2021 ; Paradiso & Sweeney 2019 ).

The strengths of the study describe the importance that nurse leaders have to play to sustain a culture of safety, thereby ensuring positive patient outcomes. It is of value to do further research to determine the direct correlation that the diverse culture might have on sustaining a culture of safety.

This study described the structured integration of specific actions for nurse leaders.

Conclusions

Nurse leaders must understand the influence that the hospital climate factors, cultural diversity, patient safety risk and ‘just’ culture practices have on positive patient outcomes and sustaining a culture of safety.

It is therefore important for nurse leaders to ensure that patient care environments adequately contribute to safety culture practices that enhance positive patient outcomes through the application of specific actions in operational activities. It is possible to sustain a culture of safety if very specific actions are implemented and facilitated in practice to allow patients and professionals from diverse cultures to enhance a culture of safety, ultimately improving patient outcomes and providing a positive patient experience.

Acknowledgements

This article is derived from the first author’s thesis, entitled ‘An action plan to enhance a sustainable culture of safety to improve patient outcomes’ submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of DLitt et PHIL in Health Studies at the University of South Africa, 2019. Supervisor: Prof. L. Roets. Available at : http://hdl.handle.net/10500/26185 .

Competing interests

The authors declare that they have no financial or personal relationships that may have inappropriately influenced them in writing this article.

Authors’ contributions

H.E.M.H. contributed to the conceptualisation, methodology and writing of the original draft. L.R. was the supervisor.

Funding information

This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public, commercial or not-for-profit sectors.

Data availability

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of any affiliated agency of the authors.

How to cite this article: Haskins, H.E.M. & Roets, L., 2022, ‘Nurse leadership: Sustaining a culture of safety’, Health SA Gesondheid 27(0), a2009. https://doi.org/10.4102/hsag.v27i0.2009

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Short Essay on Safety First [100, 200, 400 Words] With PDF

In today’s session, you will learn to write short essays on the popular term ‘Safety First.’ There are going to be three individual sets of short essays written on the topic covering different word limits.  

Short Essay on Safety First in 100 Words

Safety is the most important measure to take in our lives for any kind of emergency. We are often told about safety first. Safety means protection. We always try to avoid dangers or stay away from any harm. We work very carefully so that we do not get harmed by any problem.

Danger can come at any moment and any place. We are unaware as to when it will attack us. So having safety is our first and foremost priority. Whenever we are at home or outside, we must remember about it. We must never hurry into anything because that can cause us lots of risks. Also, we must keep a safety kit or a first aid box handy. This will help us to tackle any emergency when needed.

Short Essay on Safety First in 200 Words

Safety means any kind of protection that we observe regularly. And safety first also means making safety our biggest priority. Maintaining safety is extremely important to us. It will keep our family and society safe and sound.

The country must have responsible citizens who can maintain safety. So being safe is for the good of everyone. We must always maintain safety measures. Be it in our home or outside, it will help us to live much better. Today we observe how difficult it is to walk peacefully on the roads. It is because people do not follow safety measures.

Some bike riders drive very rashly. They do not care about the pedestrians or people walking on the road. Often it creates accidents. These accidents are fatal and can kill them as well. The drivers do not consider driving safely and slowly. They drive the car or the bus at full speed. As a result, many people daily meet accidents on the roads.

Even animals are not free of these dangers. Little kids and aged people feel scared to go alone on the roads. Even in our homes, we forget to follow safety measures. So we face several problems and are hurt severely. The dangers can become serious if we ignore our safety. So safety first is our greatest duty to everyone in our country.

Short Essay on Safety First in 400 Words

Safety means protection from any sort of danger. The term safety first is, at present, a frequently used term. Safety is something that we prioritize first. Whenever there is danger, we must take an immediate measure of safety to survive the situation. Thus keeping safety as our biggest priority is the best task to do in our lives. We will stay prepared for any hazards that may arrive on our way.

Unfortunately, people nowadays do not consider safety as the primary need. As a result, we often face severe disasters. The biggest danger takes place outside our homes when we are on the road. The bike riders dive their bikes at high speed. They drive rashly over the roads and highways. Hence it becomes very difficult for the aged and the pedestrians to walk on the roads.

Anytime they can meet an accident, and can also die on spot. Similarly, for other vehicles like a bus or a car, we observe the same picture. The buses collide with other trucks and cars while breaking the traffic rules. It is a bad habit to violate the traffic rules and traffic signals for personal benefits. Maintaining safety on roads is for the benefit of everyone. We must follow the signals and use a zebra crossing while moving to a different route. Walking in between vehicles in a hurry or jumping down a bus while it’s moving can cause serious harm. 

Even on rail lines, we must be cautious. It is always advisable never to cross a rail line while a train is approaching. Similarly, standing near the door while the train is running at full speed can cause tremendous destruction. Some people often take selfies while standing on railways and even use them as fun places. However, it is stupid to take such things lightly. Everyone should remember the safety that can help them to live better.

Safety first applies to our household as well. If there is a little child or an aged person in the house, then these safety measures become very important. One must keep away all sharp objects, fire, oil, and other poisonous goods from their reach. Burners and cylinders should be switched off to avoid any danger. The doors should be closed so that babies cannot crawl outside the house.

Also, basic hygiene is a part of safety. Keeping the house clean will make it safe. Keeping a first aid box and some emergency medicines will protect us from any immediate need. Hence these basic yet important tips can enable us to live better. 

If you have any doubts regarding today’s lesson, kindly let me know through the comment section below. To read more such sessions, keep browsing our website.

Join us on Telegram to get all the latest updates on our upcoming sessions. Thanks for being with us. All the best.

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Essay on Safety in Daily Life

The essay on safety in daily life will discuss safety for kids, the importance of being aware of their environment and how to protect themselves from potentially dangerous situations. By following some simple safety tips, children can stay safe while doing everyday activities. Kids need to be safe all the time. They must know how to stay safe when they are out and what to do if something terrible happens. Moreover, eating healthy and nutritious food plays an important role in keeping the kids safe from any ailments or allergies.

First, kids need to know the location of all exits in a building. If there is an emergency, they will be able to find the quickest way out. Additionally, children need to know how to identify dangerous objects and avoid them, for example, not to touch hot surfaces or open electrical cabinets. When playing outside, they should always be aware of their surroundings and watch out for animals that may be harmful. Finally, never leave children unattended in cars or any other vehicle. This short essay on safety in daily life will discuss some safety concerns that are most likely to come up in a kid’s life and what you can do to help them stay safe. We have also included some tips on keeping your home free of hazards so that your children can play safely.

Table of Contents

Daily safety routine for kids.

• Safety Tips for Kids Every Day

A daily safety routine is essential for kids. It can make them feel more secure in the nearby areas. In BYJU’S essay on safety in daily life, we have given some safety tips for kids to read and understand and for creating a habit for them in their daily lives.

• Establish specific times for each activity, and stick to them as much as possible. This will help make predictability in the child’s life and help them develop a good sense of rhythm and order.
• Create a safe place where the child can play. This could be their bedroom, a designated play area in the house, or outside if weather permits. Make sure that this space is well-lit and free from potential dangers.
• Ensure that the child knows how to dial 112 in an emergency. This information should be readily available at home and on the child’s emergency contact list.
• Encourage the child to immediately report any suspicious activity or people to you or another adult. By being proactive about safety, you can help protect your child from harm.

Safety Tips for Kids

It is essential for children to be safe at all times, no matter what they do. Here are some safety tips for kids to keep in mind:

• Stay away from strangers : It is always best to avoid people children don’t know, especially if they seem strange or make them feel uncomfortable. If something feels wrong, it is best to trust their instincts and run away.
• Be aware of the surroundings : Children should pay attention to their surroundings when they are out and about. Be mindful of where people are, what they are doing, and whether there are any dangerous objects nearby.
• Follow the road rules : When walking or bicycling, always obey the traffic rules. Follow the directions for pedestrians/cyclers and stay alert for cars coming from both directions.
• Do not talk on the phone while walking or biking : This is one instance where talking on a cell phone while walking or biking can be dangerous because people won’t be able to see what is happening around them. Instead, wait until one is in a safe position on the road before answering the phone.

It is the parents’ responsibility to ensure that their children are safe in their everyday lives. We need to teach them how to protect themselves from potential danger and respond when they are victims of an assault or crime. In this short essay on safety in daily life, we have shared some safety tips that can help you create a safe environment for children. For more kids learning activities like worksheets , poems and stories , visit BYJU’S website.

Frequently Asked Questions

What are some healthy eating habits for kids.

Here are some nutritional eating habits for kids. A healthy diet includes plenty of fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and lean protein. To ensure that your child is eating a healthy diet, try to provide them with meals made from scratch or ones that are at least partially prepared in a healthier way. You can also encourage your child to eat at home rather than outside. If your child does have to go out to eat, be sure to get them a meal that includes lots of fruits and vegetables.

What safety rules must kids follow while going to school?

Kids must follow safety rules taught by their parents while going to school. Children must know how to protect themselves in dangerous situations. The two most important rules are, staying away from danger zones and being aware of their surroundings.

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