Stories lived, stories told…

PATIENTSTORIES is all about culture change.

Whilst most practitioners, managers and clinicians see experiences of patients as an important aspect of patient safety improvement, the practices associated with this work are still relatively new and underdeveloped.

Engaging patients, relatives and carers in ways that use their knowledge and experience to directly influence and build the safety culture is a key frontier in transformational improvement.

The Health and Social Care Bill currently before parliament is likely to propose a statutory duty of candour which will place a legal obligation on healthcare organisations to ensure that staff are open and honest with patients in the event of avoidable harm or error.

Openness, honesty and a willingness to learn from error is fundamental to the creation of a “just culture” and thus to support sustainable improvement. But this is without doubt difficult and challenging work. Regrettably, we still work in a system where individual blame and recrimination are the norm.

In this Webinar presentation, delivered as part of PATIENTSTORIES contribution to Patient Safety Week 2011, Julie Carman and Murray Anderson-Wallace share their ideas and experiences of using patient and professional stories to influence the climate of opinion around safety in NHS organisations.

Using Julie’s own story and as the platform for discussion the web seminar outlines and demonstrates some key principles of the PATIENTSTORIES approach.

You are welcome to view the Webinar for personal learning and reflection but please do not use films contained within the presentation more widely without first ensuring that you have the appropriate licence.