Heart of Safety Coalition Tranforming safety and wellbeing, together

The Heart of Safety Declaration of Principles

Safety is at the heart of protecting our healthcare workforce, which means being safe from physical and emotional harm and free from all forms of inequity and racial injustice. Workplace violence, burnout and disparities existed long before the outbreak of COVID-19. The pandemic, however, exacerbated the factors contributing to workplace violence, created an environment of unprecedented stress and exposed the impact of systemic inequities and racial injustice on the wellbeing of healthcare team members.

We believe a renewed and expanded definition of safety is needed to restore trust, recruit and retain individuals to healing professions, enable care to be provided with the greatest skill and humanity, and ensure the wellbeing of every person working in healthcare. We’ve committed to:

Safeguarding psychological and emotional safety

1. Investing in processes and technologies that reduce emotional and cognitive burdens on team members and restore human connection to the healthcare experience.

2. Creating practices and policies that advance open communication between team members and leaders so people feel safe to speak up, bringing their full selves to work.

3. Providing resources to assess and support team members’ emotional, social and spiritual health, and alleviating the stigma and deterrents to seek support.

Promoting health justice

4. Declaring equity and anti-racism core components of safety, requiring explicit organizational and health equity-focused policies and practices to advance diversity, inclusion and belonging.

Ensuring physical safety

5. Implementing a zero-harm program for care team members to eliminate workplace violence, both physical and verbal, whether from team members, patients, families or community members.

6. Ensuring that all healthcare organizations can procure and provide evidence-based personal protective equipment, technology, tools and processes that healthcare team members need to do their jobs safely and care for patients.

Join the Heart of Safety Coalition, a growing community of leaders, learners and advocates working to advance a new definition of safety and inspire transformation to improve the wellbeing of healthcare team members.

By completing this form and signing up to join the Heart of Safety Coalition, I attest:

I will do my best to advance the concepts outlined in the Heart of Safety Declaration of Principles and the practices that support them.
I am a licensed clinician, OR
I work at a hospital, health system, clinic or other healthcare delivery organization, OR
I work at a non-profit, foundation, association or government agency that has among its aims the advancement of healthcare team member safety and wellbeing.

By attesting, I agree to receive the Heart of Safety newsletter and information about the Coalition’s news, events, podcast, research and resources.

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I understand that I can unsubscribe from this communication at any time by emailing heartofsafetycoalition@stryker.com.

Co-authors of the Declaration

In early 2021, CEOs from health systems across the U.S. convened virtually to examine standards of safety and trust for healthcare professionals at every level of their organizations. Their goal was to collectively take action to protect the wellbeing of these essential team members and ensure they have the systems, tools and resources they need and deserve to feel safe at work. These discussions resulted in the Heart of Safety Declaration of Principles for the physical safety and emotional wellbeing and just treatment of all who work in healthcare. We’re grateful for their vision and leadership that has set the template for how the Coalition is serving the broader community today.