Nurturing an authentic culture of quality improvement and patient safety in paramedicine

Abstract

Effective leadership and a supportive organizational culture are integral for an authentic culture of quality and patient safety to develop. I aimed to understand the essential leadership competencies deemed necessary for the evolution of an organizational culture focused on quality and patient safety from the perspectives of frontline providers, including knowledge translation strategies developed to assist with implementation of the results. The primary inquiry question guiding this study was: “How might paramedic leaders foster a safe to fail culture in paramedic care environments for the purpose of quality improvement and patient safety?” Several leadership competencies were found to be related to ensuring the psychological safety of frontline providers. Effective leadership at all levels of an organization was highlighted as a key success factor in building a robust organizational culture focused on improving quality and safety for the patients served.