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- Published on: 24 March 2022
- Published on: 24 March 2022Heroism is a harmful misconception
One of the most enlightening statements for me from the report of the WISH patient safety forum 2015 is, "The idea that saving patients’
lives demands heroism is a harmful misconception about health and medicine seen in popular culture. In the real-world, the true heroes are not just rescuing patients, they are voicing their concerns and taking proactive measures to reduce the risks, before a patient is potentially put in harm’s way".
We shouldn't need to rely on heroic rescue or expect it to be a normal part of our every day clinical practice. The idolisation of heroism damages attempts to improve systemic approaches to improving patient care because it neglects and belittles the under-appreciated grind of change to reduce the underlying risk of patient harm. Heroism should be less of an aspiration and more of a flag highlighting the need for organisational improvement.Conflict of Interest:
None declared.
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