Journal Article
Changing the narratives for patient safety

Patient safety is recognized as a global public health issue, causing death and suffering in all types of patients and incurring costs in all countries. The global health community has made significant and sustained efforts to improve safety and quality of health services. However, progress in reducing preventable harm has been too limited, little and local.

Here, we propose that narratives or mental models are reasons for the limited progress. Narratives inform how we interpret reality and how to act in the world and those told about patient safety and poor quality care often inhibit rather than facilitate momentum to make changes. In this paper, we discuss how changing these narratives may accelerate the efforts to improve safety and quality of care.