Patient Safety and Clinician Well-Being

Jina L Sinskey; Joyce M Chang; Amy C Lu; May C Pian-Smith

doi:10.1016/j.anclin.2023.05.003

Patient Safety and Clinician Well-Being

Anesthesiol Clin. 2023 Dec;41(4):739-753. doi: 10.1016/j.anclin.2023.05.003. Epub 2023 Aug 21.

Authors

Jina L Sinskey¹, Joyce M Chang², Amy C Lu³, May C Pian-Smith⁴

Affiliations

¹ Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care, University of California, San Francisco, 521 Parnassus Avenue, 4th Floor, San Francisco, CA, USA. Electronic address: Jina.Sinskey@ucsf.edu.
² Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care, University of California, San Francisco, 521 Parnassus Avenue, 4th Floor, San Francisco, CA, USA.
³ Department of Anesthesia and Perioperative Care, University of California, San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
⁴ Department of Anesthesia, Critical Care and Pain Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, 55 Fruit Street, Boston, MA 02114, USA; Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, USA.

PMID: 37838381
DOI: 10.1016/j.anclin.2023.05.003

Abstract

Clinician well-being and patient safety are intricately linked. We propose that organizational factors (ie, elements of the perioperative work environment and culture) affect both, as opposed to a bidirectional causal relationship. Threats to patient safety and clinician well-being include clinician mental health issues, negative work environments, poor teamwork and communication, and staffing shortages. Opportunities to mitigate these threats include the normalization of mental health care, peer support, psychological safety, just culture, teamwork and communication training, and creative staffing approaches.

Keywords: Clinician well-being; Communication; Just culture; Organizational psychology; Patient safety; Psychological safety; Teamwork.

Publication types

Review

MeSH terms

Communication*
Humans
Patient Care Team
Patient Safety*