Podcasts

Healthcare is inherently risky and so as child health professionals we need to make patient safety a priority in all our actions. We need to think about safety all the time.

In episode 1 of our series on paediatric patient safety, we speak with Dr Peter Lachman, who develops and delivers programmes for clinical leaders in quality improvement at the Royal College of Physicians in Dublin.

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As Peter explains, we healthcare professionals need to know patient safety theory – but, more importantly, we need to know how to apply it, drive improvement and create a workplace culture that fosters safe working practices.

Everyone – from the most junior member of the team to the most senior paediatric clinical leader – needs to think about patient safety all day every day. A safe culture takes time to build. Shared activities such as handover, huddles and debrief can model good behaviour and benefit performance. Repeating behaviours that represent a safe culture can create a virtuous cycle which can change deeply held attitudes and beliefs, then ultimately the safe culture overall.

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

Produced by 18Sixty

Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or find on our podcast website where you’ll also see our full show notes, including links mentioned in each episode.

You can also download the full transcript (PDF).

We can start improving the psychological safety of the teams that we work in by reflecting on our own behaviour, modelling good communication and creating a psychologically safe space around us.

In episode 2 of our series on paediatric patient safety, featuring Dr Dal Hothi & Dr Jess Morgan, we focus on psychological safety in healthcare settings. This is the condition in which you feel safe to learn, safe to contribute and safe to challenge the status quo.

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Jess explain, creating a workplace in which healthcare professionals feel psychologically safe is an essential foundation in building a safety culture. Psychological safety in healthcare settings is the condition in which you feel included, safe to learn, safe to contribute and safe to challenge the status quo – without fear of being embarrassed, marginalised or punished.

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

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

Produced by 18Sixty

Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or find on our podcast website where you’ll also see our full show notes, including links mentioned in each episode.

You can also download the full transcript (PDF).

It is not enough just to collect data on harm occurring to children in healthcare settings. We need the data to be robust, comparable across the NHS and for it to be transformed into effective, meaningful changes in outcome.

In episode 3 of our series on paediatric patient safety, we speak with Dr Damian Roland, a paediatric emergency medicine clinician scientist and head of service for the Children’s Emergency Department at Leicester Royal Infirmary.

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As Damian discusses on the podcast, in order to learn from harm and prevent it occurring again we need to collect data and investigate what is occurring across the healthcare system rather than looking to individuals. Removing the individual, more punitive approach to harm investigations could improve the quality of how we record and report harm.

There is already a wealth of learning available from a range of sources including national reports, coroner’s findings described in regulation 28 reports to prevent future death and large-scale reviews like those of the Health Services Safety Investigations Body. We can investigate whether the causes of harm identified in these reports are occurring where we work and make proactive steps to avert it.

Damian also shares the progress of the SPOT programme (System-wide Paediatric Observation Tracking) which looks to reduce harm and improve how we learn from harm by creating a standardised common language to identify and discuss children whose health is deteriorating.

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

Produced by 18Sixty

Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or find on our podcast website where you’ll also see our full show notes, including links mentioned in each episode.

You can also download the full transcript (PDF).

It is imperative in our effort to improve patient safety that CYP are at the heart and central to the co-design and co-production of patient safety improvement initiatives.

In episode 4 of our series on paediatric patient safety, we speak with Dr Jane Runnacles, consultant paediatrician at St. George’s Hospital, and Dr Victoria Dublon, paediatric diabetes consultant at the Royal Free Hospital. Both Jane and Victoria are champions of improvement work that puts the young person and their needs first.

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As Jane and Victoria describe, involving children, young people and their families in improvement work improves the experience and outcome for all involved. There are fantastic examples of co-creating and co-producing safety improvements in healthcare. We discuss the practicalities of how to do this, who to involve in your healthcare setting and some of Jane & Victoria’s successes.

Thank you for listening

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

Produced by 18Sixty

Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or find on our podcast website where you’ll also see our full show notes, including links mentioned in each episode.

You can also download the full transcript (PDF)

Health inequalities are widening in paediatrics. Those that are more disadvantaged experience more safety issues whilst in health care. If we can make our healthcare systems more equitable for the children and young people we can for, they will be safer in our care.

In episode 5 of our paediatric patient safety series, we speak with Dr Mimi Malhotra, Dr Cian Wade and Dr Helen Stewart to explore how patient safety and health inequalities are inextricably linked. Tackling healthcare inequalities can improve safety and vice versa.

Here’s a short snippet:

Health inequalities are widening in paediatrics. Those that are more disadvantaged experience more safety issues whilst in health care.

If we can make our healthcare systems more equitable for the children and young people we can for, they will be safer in our care.

Dr Stewart shares her knowledge and experience as the RCPCH Officer for Health Improvement as to how our children are impacted by health inequalities. Dr Wade and Dr Malhotra discuss their BMJ paper, Action on patient safety can reduce health inequalities, and explore some of the improvement avenues that are available to clinicians and service providers.

Thank you for listening

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

Produced by 18Sixty

Listen wherever you get your podcasts, or find on our podcast website where you’ll also see our full show notes, including links mentioned in each episode.

You can also download the full transcript(PDF)