Report: The three pillars of care team safety

Research supports a new and expanded definition of care team safety to help protect a thriving healthcare workforce.

Care team safety is foundational to all aspects of healthcare, from patient safety and experience to system resilience and finances. But what does it truly mean to be safe at work in healthcare environments, and what are the implications when people don't feel safe?

We asked more than 400 cross-disciplinary leaders and bedside team members and discovered care team safety is more nuanced than traditional definitions imply. To help retain and support a thriving workforce, healthcare leaders must embrace a new and expanded definition of care team safety that includes three key pillars. This renewed definition must protect the psychological and emotional safety, physical safety, and dignity and inclusion of every healthcare worker.

While the data shows broad agreement about what it means to be safe at work, it also calls out some important differences in perspectives between leaders and bedside team members, between doctors and nurses, and between underrepresented team members.