Risk management: two methods

Improving patient safety is a core objective of any healthcare setting, and nurses play a key role in promoting this agenda. Here we look at two models of risk management and how nurses can be aided by them.

The Safety-1 approach to risk management

When adverse events occur in primary care settings, safety managers investigate the incident and set up procedures to ensure the same event is not repeated. This comprises the Safety-1 approach, the current way of managing safety.

Under Safety-1, the work setting is assumed to be safe: there will be no mistakes as long as rules are adhered to. If errors occur, such as when patients are given the wrong medication, it is often attributed to human error, and staff may be punished or fired at the end of an investigation.