Safety Culture and Health Care

Health care 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. The American Nurses Association (2016) states that “A culture of safety describes the core values and behaviors that come about when there is collective and continuous commitment by organizational leadership, managers, and health care workers to emphasize safety over competing goals.” Similarly, the Institute for Safety and Health Management (n.d.) describes safety culture as “the attitude, beliefs, perceptions and