Are you interested in patient safety?
Ever had someone speak up to you because they didn’t agree with what you are doing, or what you said?
What if this conversation occurred in front of the patient? How would you manage that?
These messages can be personally confronting and hard to hear. Know you are not alone in feeling this way. However, these messages and conversation’s need to happen if we are genuinely interested in patient safety and the welfare of our colleagues.
So how do we increase our level of comfort when feeling uncomfortable?
How do we manage our emotions enough to engage in a conversation to understand another person’s perspective?
Well, we need to:
Reset our emotions – be aware that someone is being courageous and speaking up about a concern. Acknowledge our own emotions in response to this and take a pause before thinking about a response.
Reframe any unhelpful thoughts to more helpful ones. Ask yourself, what is it I may not be seeing? Attribute positive intent to the person speaking up. Remember, speaking up, particularly in the presence of power differentials, is not easy; the other person must be concerned about the patient’s or my safety to take that interpersonal risk.
Engage in a curious conversation. If not an emergency, negotiate to move away from the patient if this makes you feel more comfortable and helps you to engage more readily in the conversation. Listen and explore to understand their perspective and share your own. You don’t’ have to agree with their perspective, but you need to be respectful, share your thinking and work out a way forward to help resolve the concern.
How you mange this conversation will directly influence if and when that person is willing to speak up again. By being a positive receiver, you will make speaking up easier and quite literally, save lives.
Barlow, M., Watson, B., Morse, K., Jones, E., & Maccallum, F. (2023). React, reframe and engage. Establishing a receiver mindset for more effective safety negotiations. Journal of Health Organization and Management. ahead of print. https://doi.org/10.1108/JHOM-06-2023-0171