Document Type
Article
Language
eng
Publication Date
10-9-2017
Publisher
BMJ Publishing Group
Source Publication
BMJ Quality and Safety
Source ISSN
2044-5415
Abstract
Background There is a poorly understood relationship between Leadership WalkRounds (WR) and domains such as safety culture, employee engagement, burnout and work-life balance.
Methods This cross-sectional survey study evaluated associations between receiving feedback about actions taken as a result of WR and healthcare worker assessments of patient safety culture, employee engagement, burnout and work-life balance, across 829 work settings.
Results 16 797 of 23 853 administered surveys were returned (70.4%). 5497 (32.7% of total) reported that they had participated in WR, and 4074 (24.3%) reported that they participated in WR with feedback. Work settings reporting more WR with feedback had substantially higher safety culture domain scores (first vs fourth quartile Cohen’s d range: 0.34–0.84; % increase range: 15–27) and significantly higher engagement scores for four of its six domains (first vs fourth quartile Cohen’s d range: 0.02–0.76; % increase range: 0.48–0.70).
Conclusion This WR study of patient safety and organisational outcomes tested relationships with a comprehensive set of safety culture and engagement metrics in the largest sample of hospitals and respondents to date. Beyond measuring simply whether WRs occur, we examine WR with feedback, as WR being done well. We suggest that when WRs are conducted, acted on, and the results are fed back to those involved, the work setting is a better place to deliver and receive care as assessed across a broad range of metrics, including teamwork, safety, leadership, growth opportunities, participation in decision-making and the emotional exhaustion component of burnout. Whether WR with feedback is a manifestation of better norms, or a cause of these norms, is unknown, but the link is demonstrably potent.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License
Recommended Citation
Sexton, J. Bryan; Adair, Kathryn C.; Leonard, Michael W.; Frankel, Terru Christensen; Proulx, Joshua; Watson, Sam R.; Magnus, Brooke E.; Bogan, Brittany; Jamal, Maleek; Schwendimann, Rene; and Frankel, Allan S., "Providing Feedback Following Leadership Walkrounds is Associated with Better Patient Safety Culture, Higher Employee Engagement and Lower Burnout" (2017). Psychology Faculty Research and Publications. 329.
https://epublications.marquette.edu/psych_fac/329
Comments
Published version. BMJ Quality and Safety, Vol. 27, No. 4 October 9, 2017): 261-270. DOI. This is an Open Access article distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial.