Situation Awareness for Everyone

Situation awareness requires a shared understanding of what is happening. In a healthcare setting, this needs tools and techniques together with non-hierarchical information and communication.

Situation awareness takes the perspective of everyone involved in a child’s healthcare at hospital – doctors, nurses, allied health professionals, administrators, porters, families and children themselves – so that the clinical team can take the best decisions.

S.A.F.E Toolkit

Over four years, the Situation Awareness for Everyone (S.A.F.E) programme has brought together paediatric units from over 50 hospitals across England into four collaborative learning groups. The S.A.F.E toolkit introduces healthcare professionals to safety huddles and uses quality improvement methodology to embed situational awareness in to their own healthcare settings.

It’s organised into three themes that reflect how S.A.F.E has been implemented in paediatric units across the UK and its aims are:

to reduce avoidable error and harm to acutely sick children
to improve communication between all healthcare professionals involved in a child’s care to ensure treatment is consistent and of the same high standard regardless of postcode or class
to help close the disparity in health outcomes for children in UK compared to other countries as well as between children’s care and adult care
to involve parents, carers, children and young people to be better involved in their care

Module 1 - Translating Quality Improvement Into Action

Every setting is different, and so an understanding of quality improvement methodology is essential. This will allow you to take ideas, new or existing, and implement them in such a way that they can be modified until they work for you.

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Module 2 - Theories and Application of Patient Safety

A key foundation for situation awareness is a safety-based culture, engaging all staff, as well as the patients and their families. This means breaking down hierarchies, a new mental model or way of thinking and accepting that everyone has a different view, all of which need to be considered.

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Module 3 - From Reaction To Anticipation

Knowing exactly what information is needed when talking about a patient means communication is much smoother and the right information is available for decision-making. This will allow the platform for everyone to have a chance to express their view. A factor in the rate of preventable deaths is the failure to recognise and respond to deterioration. Ensuring that we recognise deterioration means we can respond in a timely and effective way, while reviewing cases of unrecognised deterioration allow us to identify new ways to improve.

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S.A.F.E Team Perspectives