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Education is crucial to how nurses practice, talk and write about keeping patients safe. The aim of this multisite study was to explore the formal and informal ways the pre-registration medical, nursing, pharmacy and physiotherapy students learn about patient safety. This paper focuses on findings from nursing. A multi-method design underpinned by the concept of knowledge contexts and illuminative evaluation was employed. Scoping of nursing curricula from four UK university programmes was followed by in-depth case studies of two programmes. Scoping involved analysing curriculum documents and interviews with 8 programme leaders. Case-study data collection included focus groups (24 students, 12 qualified nurses, 6 service users); practice placement observation (4 episodes=19 hrs) and interviews (4 Health Service managers). Within academic contexts patient safety was not visible as a curricular theme: programme leaders struggled to define it and some felt labelling to be problematic. Litigation and the risk of losing authorisation to practise were drivers to update safety in the programmes. Students reported being taught idealised skills in university with an emphasis on 'what not to do'. In organisational contexts patient safety was conceptualised as a complicated problem, addressed via strategies, systems and procedures. A tension emerged between creating a 'no blame' culture and performance management. Few formal mechanisms appeared to exist for students to learn about organisational systems and procedures. In practice, students learnt by observing staff who acted as variable role models; challenging practice was problematic, since they needed to 'fit in' and mentors were viewed as deciding whether they passed or failed their placements. The study highlights tensions both between and across contexts, which link to formal and informal patient safety education and impact negatively on students' feelings of emotional safety in their learning., (Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Aims This paper sets the discussion of emotions at work within the modern NHS and the current prioritisation of creating a safety culture within the service. Background The paper focuses on the work of students, frontline nurses and their managers drawing on recent studies of patient safety in the curriculum, and governance and incentives in the care of patients with complex long term conditions. Methods The primary research featured in the paper combined a case study design with focus groups, interviews and observation. Results In the patient safety research the importance of physical and emotional safety emerged as a key finding both for users and professionals. In the governance and incentives research, risk emerged as a key concern for managers, frontline workers and users. Conclusion The recognition of emotions and the importance of emotional labour at an individual and organizational level managed by emotionally intelligent leaders played an important role in promoting worker and patient safety and reducing workplace risk. Implications for nurse managers Nurse managers need to be aware of the emotional complexities of their organizations in order to set up systems to support the emotional wellbeing of professionals and users which in turn ensures safety and reduces risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]