Creating and Communicating Effective Safety Protocols in Healthcare

Creating and communicating effective safety protocols is important to the well-being of healthcare workers, patients, and all who interact with health systems. Although protocols have been used to support healthcare teams in providing care for decades, there is limited consensus about what constitutes an effective protocol (Myburgh, 2008). In fact, there is considerable ambiguity about what constitutes a protocol versus a policy versus a guideline versus a standard operating procedure. This panel uses the term protocol as an umbrella term to represent a range of strategies used to mandate and/or guide personnel in implementing safe practices. Panelists will discuss their perspectives and latest research characterizing challenges to effective safety protocols, as well as future directions for improving protocols in healthcare.