Press Play on Safety Conversations
When we have safety conversations, it changes the way we think about safety. With health systems under strain, it’s more important now than ever.
- Topics
- Patient engagement
- Health workforce
- Aging in place
- Audience
Healthcare leader
Point of care provider
Person with lived/living experience
:quality(80))
Ask questions, listen, and act.
Safety conversations are a respectful discussion about safety between two or more people involved in organizing, delivering, seeking, and/or receiving care, including healthcare workers, patients, residents, clients and essential care partners.
These conversations are an important step in building a positive patient safety culture, and evidence confirms that organizations with a positive patient safety culture have less harm.¹
Whether you want to fine-tune your safety conversations or get started, we can help you carry on the conversation with resources.
The links below lead to valuable resources to help you create safe spaces that invite conversations and empower effective responses. Plus, they’ll help you improve the safety conversations you’re already having.
¹ de Bienassis, K., et al., Culture as a cure: Assessments of patient safety culture in OECD countries, OECD Health Working Papers, No. 119, OECD Publishing, 2020.
Resources for healthcare providers and leaders
When healthcare workers, patients, residents, clients and caregivers – who are also known as essential care partners – prioritize talking about safety and acting on the insights, outcomes and experiences can improve for everyone.
Safety conversations are an important step in building a proactive patient safety culture. They’re a respectful discussion about safety between two or more people involved in organizing, delivering, and seeking or receiving care. Safety conversations help us understand what harm – as well as feeling and being safe – mean to all involved. These conversations are not an ‘additional project’ – they can help you do what you’re already doing, better.
Safety conversations are part of a culture shift that promotes an understanding that staff and patient safety go hand-in-hand, and that recognizes the value of patients, residents, clients, essential care partners and healthcare workers in creating safety together.
Our curated list of tools and resources, from quick tip sheets to comprehensive reports and frameworks, can help you to have safety conversations and support safer care of older adults.
How to Have Safety Conversations: A Resource for Healthcare Providers
PDF (610 KB)Whether you want to fine-tune your safety conversations or just get started, this resource will guide you in having effective safety conversations with patients, residents and clients.
How to Have Safety Conversations: A Resource for Patients and Caregivers
PDF (610 KB)Share this resource with your patients, residents and clients to help them prepare for safety conversations.
“What makes you feel safe” posters
PDF (82 KB)Provide these posters to your patients, clients, residents and their essential care partners to help create an environment for them to openly participate in safety conversations.
Presence of Safety
Rethinking Patient SafetyFind out how Healthcare Excellence Canada is supporting a transformative shift from seeing safety as the absence of harm, to a more holistic approach that fosters safe, inclusive care.
Engagement Capable Environments Organizational Self-Assessment Tool
Engagement Capable Environments Organizational Self-Assessment ToolEngagement-capable environments create and sustain a culture of patient-and family-centred care, and patient partnership, that seeks to improve healthcare quality, safety and experience. This practice-based tool supports meaningful engagement at an organizational level.
A Journey We Walk Together: Strengthening Indigenous Cultural Competency in Health Organizations
A Journey We Walk TogetherIndigenous cultural competency is vital to providing safe, high-quality services. For organizations to become more culturally competent, they need culturally competent people who are supported by intentional structures and effective processes. Consider where your organization is on its journey toward cultural competency and explore how you can improve your structures and processes to achieve better outcomes.
Canadian Quality and Patient Safety Framework Evaluation
PDF (89 KB)Discover how organizations have been using the Canadian Quality and Patient Safety framework to improve patient safety in their organizations.
Resources for patients, residents, clients and caregivers
When healthcare workers, patients, residents, clients and caregivers – who are also known as essential care partners – prioritize talking about safety and acting on the insights, outcomes and experiences can improve for everyone.
Safety conversations are an opportunity for providers, patients, residents, clients and essential care partners to contribute openly to safe care.
They are part of a culture shift that promotes an understanding that staff and patient safety go hand-in-hand, and that recognizes the value of patients, residents, clients, essential care partners and healthcare workers in creating safety together.
Use these tools and resources, or share them with your essential care partners, to participate in safety conversations that will help you and your loved ones stay safer.
How to Have Safety Conversations: A Resource for Patients and Caregivers
PDF (610 KB)Safety conversations help you and your loved ones stay safe. Learn how to prepare for safety conversations with your healthcare provider.
“What makes you feel safe” posters
PDF (20 KB)Share these posters with your healthcare provider so you have an opportunity to contribute openly to safe care.
Presence of Safety
Rethinking Patient SafetyFind out how Healthcare Excellence Canada is supporting a transformative shift from seeing safety as the absence of harm to a more holistic approach that fosters safe, inclusive care.