Patient Safety Awareness Day: by Naomi Burden, Patient Safety and Safety Culture Consultant
World Patient Safety Day, observed annually on 17th September, is a global campaign led by the World Health Organization (WHO). The day serves as a call to action, bringing together everyone with an interest in ensuring safe care for those who need and access health services.
Each year, the campaign focuses on a specific theme to unite efforts across the globe.
This year’s theme is: “Safe care for every newborn and every child.”
This is a poignant and urgent topic. Globally, maternity care remains high-risk, and inequalities in care for children are evident. According to figures published by WHO in April 2025, over 90% of all maternal deaths in 2023 occurred in low- and lower-middle-income countries.
The inequity in the experiences of care and the complications faced by mothers and babies continues to be a significant challenge. WHO’s data also highlights the crucial role of healthcare professionals: their skills before, during, and after childbirth can save the lives of women and newborns.
The campaign extends beyond maternity care to include neonates and children, calling for greater awareness of the care provided not only to the child but also to their families and caregivers. This broadens the scope of the campaign to include everyone who influences the lives of children and those important to them, not just those who provide direct care.
What is patient safety?
Patient safety is the prevention of harm to patients during healthcare by reducing the risk of unintended errors to an acceptable minimum. The science of safety is complex, it involves a framework of organised activities, processes, and, crucially, behaviours that help create a culture of safety.
While all of us accessing and benefiting from healthcare want an experience that meets our needs without error, we must understand that healthcare always involves some level of risk. These risks exist because healthcare is no longer simple.
We now have highly technical equipment that accelerates clinical practice, innovative medicines targeted to specific cells in our bodies, and highly educated healthcare teams who continue to drive progress. All these systems, both individually and collectively, must function reliably to ensure safety.
This highlights the importance of human factors and ergonomics: the science of designing and delivering each interaction in healthcare to achieve the desired outcome safely and effectively.
Creating a culture of safety
Every day, approximately 70 million people around the world work hard to ensure that the healthcare accessed by billions is safe and effective. One of the key campaign messages this year is that safer care depends on safe systems and teamwork. Well-designed systems, supported staff, and engaged caregivers help keep children safe. Every voice counts.
Teamwork includes children and those close to them, they are the most important people in the care process. Empowering their voices to be heard, either directly or through an advocate, helps shape healthcare plans and improves their experience. Children know themselves best, and making informed decisions about their health is vital. For younger children, families and caregivers are encouraged to be their child’s safety champion by staying informed, involved, and advocating on their behalf.
WHO’s message for older children (from age 6 upwards) is to speak up for their own safety. A simple action, such as asking a child to confirm their personal details, can begin the conversation around child-centred care. Healthcare teams should always tailor conversations and care to the child, adjusting for age and development, but always listening actively and encouraging questions.
Reducing errors through a safety climate
Creating a climate of safety gives any healthcare team a distinct advantage. It enables them to work more safely and remain vigilant in identifying potential errors, such as challenging cognitive bias.
Cognitive biases are systematic errors in thinking that negatively impact clinical decision-making. They can lead to diagnostic errors, inappropriate treatment, and adverse patient outcomes.
It is estimated that up to 75% of errors in internal medicine practice are cognitive in origin. These errors have been identified at every stage of the diagnostic process, including:
- Information gathering
- Association triggering
- Context formulation
- Processing
- Verification
Common examples include:
- Confirmation bias – seeking evidence that supports initial beliefs
- Anchoring bias – over-relying on initial information
When learning from error, strategies such as considering a differential diagnosis or seeking a ‘fresh eyes’ perspective, where an objective view is invited, can be highly beneficial.
To counter cognitive bias, we must understand human thinking processes and design tools that support de-biasing, such as checklists. It’s also essential to involve the entire team in recognising and avoiding these error traps.
Designing our care for children
The main causes of harm in newborns and children include medication errors, healthcare-associated infections, and diagnostic errors. In radiography, using minimal radiation exposure, following the principle of ‘As Low as Reasonably Practicable (ALARP)’, helps protect patients from unnecessary exposure. Children are more sensitive to radiation than adults and must be treated differently by a team with specialist paediatric radiography skills. This includes the ability to communicate effectively with children and their families, as well as working cohesively as a healthcare team.
If we don’t ensure that teams like radiography have specialist training, appropriate equipment, a child-friendly environment, and specific paediatric safety measures, the risk of error increases.
A few years ago, I was involved in a project where we co-created resources such as information leaflets and room décor for children visiting clinical imaging departments. These resources were co-produced with children and parents, and we collaborated with a local college, giving students the opportunity to work on a real-world project. Asking what matters to children, amplifying their voices, and understanding the world from their perspective elevated the level of care we provided.
Designing specific safety interventions into everyday practice helps create ‘norms’, ways of working that keep everyone safe. When teams are empowered to deliver safer care, they become more resilient, standards improve, and everyone benefits.
Learning for patient safety events
But how do we respond to patient safety errors? First and foremost, with compassion, recognising that everyone comes to work with the intention of doing a good job and delivering excellent care. A strong safety culture empowers everyone, including children, families, and caregivers, to speak up without fear of blame, within a framework known as a ‘Just Culture’.
The learning response must reflect the complexity of healthcare by being systems-based. This means examining each interaction to understand why an error occurred and how the system can be adapted to reduce the risk of it happening again.
Creating these conditions for safety goes beyond the immediate care team. That’s why World Patient Safety Day also aims to influence leaders, managers, policymakers, and governments to ensure that safety is embedded at every level of healthcare delivery.
There is more to do
As we mark World Patient Safety Day 2025, the message is clear: creating safer care for every newborn and child requires all of us to play our part. Whether we are healthcare professionals striving to design better systems, families advocating for their children, or leaders shaping policy, our collective commitment to a culture of safety can transform outcomes.
The statistics remind us of the inequalities that persist globally, but they also highlight the power of skilled, compassionate care to save lives. By embracing the principles of teamwork, open communication, and continuous learning from our experiences, we move closer to a world where every child receives the safe, effective care they deserve.
The journey toward safer healthcare is ongoing, and every voice, no matter how small, truly counts in making that vision a reality.
Turn awareness into action
If you’d like to explore these ideas further, I’ll be teaching Human Factors and Communication for Radiographers: Sharper Teams, Safer Practice later this year. This interactive course is designed to help radiographers strengthen teamwork, understand human factors, and put practical strategies in place to reduce errors and improve patient outcomes.
Upcoming dates:
Wednesday, 26 November 2025 – Register here
Tuesday, 20 January 2026 – Register here
Patient Safety and Safety Culture Consultant
