A guiding principle for safety research and programs:
“Safety is the sum of the accidents that DO NOT occur.
While accident research has focused on why accidents have occurred, safety research should focus on why accidents have not occurred.”
This reminds me of the study of wellness. Do you gain more by studying those with disease or those who are healthy?
My grandmother had a high cholesterol count since the first time they checked it when she was in her 70s..yet she died at 95 with no heart disease. Should we be studying those who have high cholesterol and heart disease or studying someone like her who had high cholesterol but obviously some mediating factors that prevented heart disease? the latter is what will build resiliency in heathcare because it is those mitigating factors that we want to strengthen. Just as we never eradicate all disease we will never eradicate all risk in hospital care. But we stand a chance to live as providers safely into old age if we can enhance those mitigating factors..
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