- 3
Investigation process: what and why
Investigation process: what and why?
Investigations are not processes to assign blame but processes to learn. They aim to piece together the incident and looking at where things potentially could have been done differently to improve the outcome. The move from blame to learning is central to the NHS Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF)approach which aims to improve the response to patient safety incidents, a brief outline of the application in maternity care can be found here.
The NHSJust Culture guide emphasises safety, learning, and support while ensuring accountability is fair and constructive, a brief outline of the application in maternity care can be found here.
Within individual Trusts, the Maternity Governance teams support the quality and safety agenda by ensuring that patient safety events are managed in line with local and national guidance, more about their role is here.
This can be a very uncertain time as the process can feel daunting and unclear. A breakdown of the timeline is given in this document, along with huddle ideas to create support in the workplace.
Support in the workplace is an important coping strategy, so make sure you ‘check-in’ with colleagues going through this process frequently. Asking someone ‘how are feeling today?’ or ‘how are you feeling about the process?’. Be sure when you ask this question, that you demonstrate body language that show you want to hear the answer e.g., make eye-contact and do not ask in passing but when you in a position to stop and listen.