In the Your Voice Counts all-staff survey across our system, Mount Sinai nurses identified psychological safety as a common and pressing concern. A packed auditorium was treated to a deep dive into the topic recently at the Health System’s 2024 Annual Nursing Conference, “Empowering Teams: Building a Culture of Safety and Collaboration.” Highlights included a two-pronged keynote approach by nationally recognized experts in the field, a lively panel discussion, and a Q&A session.
The importance of the material was relayed via introductory remarks by senior Mount Sinai Heath System leaders Beth Oliver, DNP, RN, FAAN, Chief Nurse Executive and Senior Vice President, Cardiac Services; Brendan G. Carr, MD, MA, MS, Chief Executive Officer, Professor and Kenneth L. Davis, MD, Distinguished Chair; and David L. Reich, MD, Chief Clinical Officer and President, The Mount Sinai Hospital and Mount Sinai Queens.
Then, the two keynote speakers recognized Mount Sinai’s reputation as a leading health care organization and set their sights on the future: How to leverage that standing to ensure delivery of care that is stronger, better, always.
Amy Edmondson, PhD, Novartis Professor of Leadership and Management, Harvard Business School, began with an engaging, no-nonsense, and at times humorous keynote, “Work Without Fear: Why Psychological Safety Matters for Safe High-Quality Care.” With a focus on work environments, she made the important point that psychological safety involves a healthy friction, creating a place where people feel comfortable pointing out mistakes to further the team’s goals. She went on to discuss key related elements:
- How high standards and psychological safety go hand in hand
- How various work environments function
- How we as individuals deal with them
- How we band together in teams to respond and excel
Thomas Lee, MD, Chief Medical Officer of Press Ganey, the patient-satisfaction survey firm—which also conducted Your Voice Counts for Mount Sinai—seamlessly picked up where Dr. Edmondson left off with his keynote, “How Do We Hard-Wire What Amy Thinks We Should Do?” He shifted the discussion from the organizational perspective to that of teams and individuals and how staff can work together to prevent errors. Dr. Lee particularly noted the concept of social capital and the importance of empowering team members to speak up if they see something out of place, and to innovate for improvement.
The two then joined Mount Sinai experts, including Pam Abner, MPA, CPXP, Senior Vice President, System Health Equity Officer, Chief Diversity Operations Officer, Mount Sinai Health System, Jonathan Nover, MBA, RN, Vice President of Nursing for Emergency Services, Mount Sinai Health System, and Beth Degen, RN, Senior Clinical Nurse, The Mount Sinai Hospital, for an engaging interdisciplinary panel discussion and Q&A session, moderated by Rebecca Anderson, MPH, Vice President of Strategy Operations, Office of the Chief Medical Officer. The overarching themes were about building inclusive, supportive care environments—setting the foundation for a safer, more unified health care future.
The conference was a practical, idea-packed day for clinicians looking to foster stronger teams and safer patient outcomes.