Research
MOMENTS has been developed out of research carried out by the SAPPHIRE (Social science APPlied Healthcare and Improvement REsearch) group
Key Aims
SAPPHIRE (Social science APPlied Healthcare and Improvement REsearch) group at the University of Leicester, investigated what makes a good safety culture and which factors enabled safety culture development, rather than only focussing on mistakes, accidents or incidents. The research draws on the experiences of ten maternity and neonatal services across England.
Drawing on social practice theory, the team then explored how everyday practices - examples of which were provided in the research - could provide a vehicle for cultural conversations and reflection, and created the MOMENTS framework which is designed to help healthcare professionals understand and support local safety culture improvements.
Key Findings
POSITIVE SAFETY CULTURE
The research found six enabling factors through which positive safety cultures are created and maintained through normal everyday work.
These are supported by cultural values that shape why and how we do things.
HOW DO WE TAKE CULTURE FROM ABSTRACT TO ACCESSIBLE?
Rather than thinking about safety culture as a set of interventions like safety huddles and walk rounds, safety culture is a set of interrelated things we DO and HOW we do them.
These things we do are made up of materials - objects, tools and infrastructure like training, policies and guidelines; meanings - cultural norms like informal and formal rules and hierarchies; and staff competencies - knowledge, experience and skills.
This means small changes we make in meanings, materials and competencies can improve safety practices and influence safety culture.
In practice
To help apply these principles in practice, the research team have developed Moments - a framework to explore safety culture through everyday practices.
This provides a practical and easy to run workshop for healthcare professionals to support local safety culture improvement.