Meet our Safety Coaches

Dr. Jehier Afifi, Neonatologist 

1. What does patient safety mean to you?  
   • It is the standard for quality care as defined by the Institute of Health Care Improvement (IHI)
       
2.  What motivated you to become a safety coach? 
   • To support safety culture in my area & engage families, staff and learners to speak up.
3. How do you integrate error prevention techniques into your daily practice?
   
   • Using the tools is very helpful. I suggest monthly themes to promote one tool at a time.
4. As an organization, how do we build a strong safety culture? 
   • Priority as aligning with IWK vision, Awareness of the magnitude of preventable harm, Engagement (staff, patients, administrators), Culture of safety (no blame) promotion, Education (error prevention tools)
   • More importantly, identify metrics to measure: 
     1. how our process is improving  
     2. the impact on patient outcomes 

 

Carol Sutherland, Pharmacist 

1. What does patient safety mean to you?
   • Patient Safety for me means no patient will ever experience serious harm while we are trying to heal them.  I am excited to be a part of an organization that focuses on preventing and reducing risks, errors and harm that can occur during provision of health care.  As a pharmacist, I am proud to be part of a team of pharmacists and pharmacy practice assistants who provide safe and accurate medications to care areas, drug information and clinical services to care areas, nurses, prescribers, patients and their families.
2. What motivated you to become a safety coach?
   • I am passionate about patient safety in every respect, but especially where it concerns medication safety. I was excited when this program was established at the IWK by our Patient Safety team.  Safety Coaches play a significant role in reducing preventable patient harm. I enjoy modeling and mentoring safe medication practices with my pharmacy team members.  Having a group of enthusiastic safety coaches allows for networking, communication, and skill development.
3. How do you integrate error prevention techniques into your daily practice?
   
   • Our pharmacy services are complex and varied.  Our systems are well designed, but continual quality improvement is essential in maintaining the accuracy, efficiency and safety. In my safety coach role, I engage my colleagues and encourage them to report any safety concerns and opportunities for improvement. This is done in several ways:
     • We have weekly huddles where management and staff offer up and discuss opportunities for improvement in either efficiency or safety.
     • Staff are encouraged to become safety coaches,reinforcing safe practices and offering feedback and suggestions for safe behaviors.
     • We try to make continuous improvement fun by providing staff with opportunities to celebrate “good catches” that could have prevented an error from occurring. We have a Safety Coach board that exists in the pharmacy where these “good catches” are posted on fish shapes.  There is a monthly draw and a prize awarded to the staff member who reported the “good catch”.
     • We have regular posters with a new safety initiative or strategy.Medication related occurrences where pharmacy had a role are reviewed and shared with individuals involved.  We discuss root causes and suggest mitigation strategies.  Occurrences are de-identified and shared with the rest of the pharmacy team as an educational opportunity.
4. As an organization, how do we build a strong safety culture?
   • Patient safety culture can be measured by determining what is rewarded, supported, expected, and accepted in an organization as it relates to patient safety. HRO principles of: preoccupation with failure, sensitivity to operations, reluctance to simplify interpretations, commitment to resilience and deference to expertise create a mindfulness infrastructure where safety concerns are voiced and initiatives are supported by management.  There should be a no blame culture where events can be reported, reviewed by quality consultants and feedback as to corrective actions taken can be provided to the filer.I feel we have an amazing framework for patient safety at the IWK which is well supported by administration.
     

 

Renette Amirault-Laing, Bilingual Nurse Coordinator 

1. What does patient safety mean to you?
   • I look at patient safety in a different type of lens where communication is a vital part of patient safety.   In healthcare it is vital that patients/families understand everything that is being discussed in their preferred language.  The impact of poor communication can have very negative results for a patient and/or the Health center.  Using qualified interpreters provides quality patient safety and culturally competent care.
2. What motivated you to become a safety coach?
   • In my role as the Bilingual Nurse Coordinator,  I have to opportunity to work throughout the Health Center.   Doing this work motivated me to become a safety coach as I have a chance to go to all the various clinics and care areas.  This gives me the opportunity to see different safety issues on a daily basis.
3. How do you integrate error prevention techniques into your daily practice?
   • Within my role the way that I integrate error prevention techniques is by providing education and guiding staff through language support.  This includes interpretation (face to face, telephone or IPad)  or the translation of documents for families.
4. As an organization, how do we build a strong safety culture?
   • We can continue to build on our strong safety culture by being open minded and accepting feedback, committing to participate in a safety culture and celebrating success regularly! 
     

Gail MacRae, Clinical Nurse Specialists – NICU 

1. What does patient safety mean to you?
   • Patient Safety is truly the foundation of all that we do as health care providers. It is embedded into every element of practice. Safety is not just physical either, one must create a space for emotional, spiritual and cultural safety of patients and families to optimize their health care experience. All elements of health must be safeguarded. Quality care, experience and safety have a reciprocal relationship.As health care providers, we are guided by knowledge, experience, standards of practice, and codes of ethics in our everyday practice. It is our responsibility as care providers to provide safe care to our patients and families throughout times of vulnerability. We must not simply expect that a family trust us because of our job titles. We earn trust through building collaborative, compassionate relationships that provide high quality safe care for the betterment and maintenance of health. There really is no other option besides safe care.
2. What motivated you to become a safety coach?
   • I have always felt the weight of the responsibility to provide best care to patients and families. I have never taken that lightly. At the time I became a safety coach I felt I needed to further my skills and language to translate the importance of safe practice. I was looking for a framework, a model or simply a guide that I could rely on to bring attention to patient safety. Nurses are leaders in health care, becoming a safety coach provided me with an opportunity to demonstrate leadership in safety culture.
3. How do you integrate error prevention techniques into your daily practice?
   • The most common error prevention technique I use is STAR. It is an intuitive technique to stop, think, act and review. STAR can be applied to care provision, communication strategies, and relationship building – all of which contribute to safe care.
4. As an organization, how do we build a strong safety culture?
   • We all have a common goal of providing best care to patients and families, patient safety is an integral part of that. Safe care is the expectation and we all have to be responsible and accountable to the care we provide. As an organization I feel we have come a long way since the implementation of the safety coach role. Safety is on the tip of everyone’s tongue. The safety coach program has already contributed to a shift in culture within the health centre. We just need to keep going. We need to keep talking, keep problem solving, eliminate known margins of error and continue to promote safety on an ongoing basis.  
     

 

Tanya Bishop, Manager – NICU & PFU 

1.  What does patient safety mean to you?
   • Patient safety is everything! Being more involved in patient safety ignited a spark in me nearly 12 years ago and I have never looked back. I have seen firsthand the value of always thinking about safety and all of the good that can come from this mindset. The more we focus on patient safety, the better the care for our patients and families and the better staff feel about their impact.
2. What motivated you to become a safety coach?
   • First of all I wanted to learn how I could better support the safety coaches in NICU. I also wanted to know all of the safety techniques that you have the chance to learn when you take the course! I saw this as a way to better enhance my ability as a leader to always remain mindful and supportive of all that a dedication to safety involves.
3. How do you integrate error prevention techniques into your daily practice?
   • I am not a direct care provider, however, I do ensure that I consistently use the name game, where I always introduce myself to the families when meeting with them. In my role as manager, I am well versed in the use of SBAR to communicate concerns. I have made a recent commitment to utilize STAR more often as frequently I find I am working so fast through items on my to-do list that I do not take the time for a pause and thoughtfulness first.
4. As an organization, how do we build a strong safety culture?
   • By continuing to offer education. By regularly focusing on safety. By feeding back to the direct care providers their positive impact when they become a safety coach, file a SIMS, contribute to an enhanced safety culture in any way.  

 

Stacy Burgess, Director Children’s Medical – Critical and Rehabilitation Services 

1.  What does patient safety mean to you?
   • Health care is complex.  To me, patient safety in health care is a discipline that aims to prevent and reduce error and harm to patients during their encounters of care.
2. What motivated you to become a safety coach?
   • Patient safety has always been a passion of mine.  Once I saw so many care providers signing up to be a safety coach I wanted to follow them and understand better as a Director the work they are doing every day.
3. How do you integrate error prevention techniques into your daily practice?
   • Things like SBAR, Qualify, Validate, Verify, ARCC, Stop and Resolve are natural behaviors and tools that all of us use every day.  We may not always call them “error prevention tools” but they are truly part of our day to day operation.
4. As an organization, how do we build a strong safety culture?
   • To build a strong safety culture as an organization we must continue to be transparent, be curious, not be afraid to ask tough questions and commit to a journey of continuous learning.  Sometimes errors happen, we need to learn from them, work together to find solutions that prevent them from happening again, but above all we need to support each other.    

 

Dr. Katie Gardner, Physician – IWK Emergency Department 

1. What does patient safety mean to you?
   • Patient safety means preventing harm to our patients during the process of trying to provide the best care possible for each individual.
2. What motivated you to become a safety coach?
   • Being involved in quality improvement and patient safety can make you feel empowered to be part of systems changes that lead to better outcomes for our patients. The more people that become safety coaches the more this type of work can be done on small scales every day and that is how we will continue to improve. It was important to me to go through the safety coach training in order to “walk the walk” and encourage others through action.
3. How do you integrate error prevention techniques into your daily practice?
   • One thing that stood out to me from the training was to emphasize positive behaviours and support team members when they use error prevention strategies or when they have safety conversations with their peers. Speaking about safety behaviours in a positive way opens the door for being able to openly discuss areas to improve.
4. As an organization, how do we build a strong safety culture? 
   • Staff within the organization, no matter their role, hear the language of patient safety frequently and see that from executive leadership down, safety behaviours are a priority every day. We have the feeling that everyone is driven to improve and prevent harm and that we can be transparent about errors with the focus always being on patients – present and future.
     

 

Katherine Hutka, Health Promotion Specialist – Child Passenger Safety

1. What does patient safety mean to you?
   • In my work it means that we are the go-to for families to find the information and support they need to keep their children safe at home, on the road and at play.
2. What motivated you to become a safety coach?
   • I work with Child Safety Link; “safety” is our middle name.  I was excited by the opportunity to better integrate our team’s knowledge of children’s injury prevention with the everyday practices in the health centre and beyond.
3. How do you integrate error prevention techniques into your daily practice?
   • I think the most consistent technique I use is to “speak up for safety” and say: “I have a concern”.  Each of us has voice and a responsibility to speak up – even when speaking up is hard and makes more work.I am working towards building safer policies and procedures, and the training to support them.
4. As an organization, how do we build a strong safety culture?
   • I think the IWK Strategic Plan says it best: we ASPIRE.  We are a part of the Solutions for Patient Safety Network and our high aspirations have led to a commitment to learning from others who share these goals.