'Saying it without words': a qualitative study of oncology staff's experiences with speaking up about safety concerns.

ABSTRACT:

Objectives

To explore the experiences of oncology staff with communicating safety concerns and to examine situational factors and motivations surrounding the decision whether and how to speak up using semistructured interviews.

Setting

7 oncology departments of six hospitals in Switzerland.

Participants

Diverse sample of 32 experienced oncology healthcare professionals.

Results

Nurses and doctors commonly experience situations which raise their concerns and require questioning, clarifying and correcting. Participants often used non-verbal communication to signal safety concerns. Speaking-up behaviour was strongly related to a clinical safety issue. Most episodes of 'silence' were connected to hygiene, isolation and invasive procedures. In contrast, there seemed

SUBMITTER: Schwappach DL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4025461 | biostudies-literature | 2014 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature