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Safety Culture in Healthcare Settings						Print
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										Directly Below Shot Of Doctor Stacking Hands TogetherPhoto by Getty Images**CDC Course WB4450 – NIOSH Pub. No. 2023 – 135**
This course provides science and evidence-based information for healthcare workers with a focus on six competencies designed to increase knowledge about work-related hazards and address organizational and personal strategies to promote a safe and healthful work environment.
**OBJECTIVES:**
Describe the importance of safety culture in health care settings.
Identify common work-related risk and hazards.
Explain strategies to prevent/control work-related injury/illness.
Identify leadership strategies that lead to continuous improvement of safety culture for health care workers.
Describe the Occupational Safety and Health Act as legal framework for worker safety and health.
Describe ethical principles of safe working that guide health team members’ professional practice.There are five knowledge modules each 20-30 minutes long along with a list of resources that healthcare workers can utilize. Upon successful completion of all five modules in the course, participants will receive a certificate and continuing education credits. **Note**: ***If you must stop before the end of the course, be sure to remember the module number and section where you stop so you do not have to start the course from the beginning when returning.***Start CourseCourse InformationCourse Description
	This course provides science and evidence-based information for healthcare workers with a focus on six competencies designed to increase knowledge about work-related hazards and address organizational and personal strategies to promote a safe and healthful work environment.
**Competencies**
Define an effective safety culture in healthcare settings and factors that help to create a culture of safety.
Identify common healthcare work-related risks and hazards that can result in worker injury and/or illness.
Describe strategies for the prevention, reduction, and control of work-related injury and illness in healthcare settings.
Describe leadership’s role in establishing, applying, and sustaining a safe work environment.
Identify employer and employee legal and ethical roles and responsibilities that promote and maintain safe working conditions.
Utilize resources that can assist healthcare workers with maintaining a safe and healthful job and work environment.Course Accreditation Statements and Instructions
	Jointly accredited provider icon
In support of improving patient care, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is jointly accredited by the Accreditation Council for Continuing Medical Education (ACCME), the Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education (ACPE), and the American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC), to provide continuing education for the healthcare team.
**CME:**The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention designates this **enduring** activity for a maximum of **1.5**AMA PRA Category 1 CreditsTM. Physicians should claim only the credit commensurate with the extent of their participation in the activity.
**CNE:**The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention designates this activity for **1.5** nursing contact hours.
**CEU:**The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is authorized by IACET to offer **0.1** CEU’s for this program.
**DISCLOSURE:** In compliance with continuing education requirements, all planners and presenters must disclose all financial relationships, in any amount, with ineligible companies during the previous 24 months.
CDC, our planners, and content experts wish to disclose they have no financial relationship(s) with ineligible companies whose primary business is producing, marketing, selling, reselling, or distributing healthcare products used by or on patients.
Content will not include any discussion of the unlabeled use of a product or a product under investigational use.
CDC did not accept financial or in-kind support from ineligible companies for this continuing education activity.
**Instructions for Obtaining Continuing Education (CE)**
To receive continuing education (CE) for **Safety Culture in Healthcare Settings,** **WB4450**, please visit TCEO and follow these 9 Simple Steps before 05/22/2025.
Complete the activity.
Complete the evaluation at https://tceols.cdc.gov/.
Pass the posttest with at least a 71% score at https://tceols.cdc.gov/.FEES: No fees are charged for CDC’s CE activities.Author Information & Acknowledgements
	**Authors**

**Bonnie Rogers**, DrPH, COHN-S, LNCC, FAAN
Consultant and Project Director
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Adjunct Professor Environmental Sciences and Engineering
Gillings School of Public Health, University of North Carolina

**Megan Casey**, RN, BSN, MPH
Nurse Epidemiologist
LCDR, United States Public Health Service
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

**Michelle Martin**, MS
Health Communication Specialist
Respiratory Health Division
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

**Ruth Francis**, MPH, MCHES
Senior Policy Advisor, American Nurses Association

**Pamela Dembski Hart**, BS MT(ASCP) CHSP
Health, Safety and Infection Prevention Compliance Specialist
Founder and Principal, Healthcare Accreditation Resources LLC
****
**Amanda Hessels**, PhD, MPH, RN, CIC, CPHQ, FAPIC, FAAN
Assistant Professor of Nursing, Columbia University, School of Nursing
Nurse Scientist, Hackensack Meridian Health

**Tony Hilton**, DrPH, RN, MSN, FNP, CRRN
Safe Patient Handling and Mobility (SPHM) National Program Manager
Veterans Health Administration
****
**Acknowledgements**

**External Reviewers**
**Jacqueline Agnew**, PhD
Johns Hopkins University

**Kimberly Brinker**, RN, MSN, MPH
Kaiser Permanente Washington
							
					
							Last Reviewed:  May 4, 2023						Source: 	National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health
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        Syndicate homeSafety Culture in Healthcare Settings
Training Informationplus icon
Introduction
Module 1: Safety Cultureplus icon
Why a Culture of Safety is Important
The Sociotechnical Model
Definition Examples of Safety Culture and Overlap with Safety Climate
Key Attributes and Joint Benefits of Safety Culture
Common Features of Positive Healthcare Worker Safety Culture
General Measurable Elements of a Safety Culture
Tools to Measure Safety Culture and Climate
A Snapshot of Safety Culture in U.S. Hospitals
References
Quiz 1Module 2: Work-Related Risks and Hazardsplus icon
Biological Hazardsplus icon
Chain of Infection Components
Risk Factors of Biological Agents and Unsafe Practices
Chemical Hazards
Enviromechanical Hazards
Physical Hazards
Psychosocial Hazards
Hazard Assessment/Determination
Case Study
References
Quiz 2Module 3: Prevention and Control of Work-Related Injury and Illnessplus icon
Hierarchy of Controls
Elimination: Physically Remove the Hazard
Substitution and Engineering Controls
Administrative Controls: Change the Way People Work
Personal Protective Equipment (PPE): Protect the Worker with PPE
Donning and Doffing PPE: Proper Wearing, Removal, and Disposal
References
Quiz 3Module 4: Leadership and Safe Work Environmentsplus icon
Commitment to Workplace Safety as High Priority and Through Role Modeling
Policies and Procedures and Safe Patient Handling
Hazard Analysis and Safe Staffing Workloads
State-of-the-Art Training and Handling Patients
Engage Healthcare Worker Champions and Observe Work
Transparency, Training, and Staff Safety Rounds
References
Quiz 4Module 5: Legal-Ethical Considerations to Promote Safe Working Conditionsplus icon
The Occupational Safety and Health Act and OSHA Standards
OSHA Healthcare Standards
OSHA Hazard Communication Standard and OSHA Guidelines
What Workers Can Do
Ethics and Healthcare Worker Exposure Considerations
Ethical Principles
References
Quiz 5Safety Culture in Healthcare Settings: Resources Follow NIOSH Facebook
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