Speaking Up About Patient Safety, Withholding Voice and Safety Climate in Clinical Settings: a Cross-Sectional Study Among Ibero-American Healthcare Students

Objectives: To explore speaking up behaviours, barriers to openly expressing patient safety concerns, and perceived psychological safety climate in the clinical setting in which healthcare trainees from Ibero-America were receiving their practical training.

Methods: Cross-sectional survey of healthcare trainees from Colombia, Mexico, and Spain (N = 1,152). Before the field study, the Speaking Up About Patient Safety Questionnaire (SUPS-Q) was translated into Spanish and assessed for face validity. A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted to establish the construct validity of the instrument, and the reliability was assessed. The SUPS-Q was used to evaluate voice behaviours and the perceived psychological safety climate among Ibero-American trainees. Descriptive and frequency analyses, tests for contrasting means and proportions, and logistic regression analyses were performed.

Results: Seven hundred and seventy-one trainees had experience in clinical settings. In the previous month, 88.3% had experienced patient safety concerns, and 68.9% had prevented a colleague from making an error. More than a third had remained silent in a risky situation. Perceiving concerns, being male or nursing student, and higher scores on the encouraging environment scale were associated with speaking up.

Conclusion: Patient safety concerns were frequent among Ibero-American healthcare trainees and often silenced by personal and cultural barriers. Training in speaking up and fostering safe interprofessional spaces is crucial.