Towards a Safer Culture

This page contains information on the Nurses and Midwives Towards a safer Culture (NM TASC) The Next Steps’ Strategy role in reducing occupational violence towards nurses and midwives.

We define occupational violence as any action, incident or behaviour that departs from reasonable conduct which causes a person to be assaulted, threatened, harmed, or injured during, or as a direct result of their work where the workplace also includes remote, community or home-based sites, and also includes abuse through technology (text, emails, and phone calls).

This strategy is led by ACT Health Directorate and encompasses Canberra Health Service.

Vision and goals for the strategy

The NM TASC ‘The Next Steps’ strategy follows on from the Nurses and Midwives: Towards a Safer Culture - The First Steps: Strategy to support the fundamental rights of healthcare workers, patients and visitors within ACT public health services to feel safe and protected at all times.

The Strategy makes an important contribution to increasing understanding of occupational violence and maintains focus on its impact in the healthcare setting. The Next Steps Strategy continues to create a safer and healthier environment by delivering the 12 remaining priority actions that were identified during the First Steps evaluation process. These priority actions will work towards reducing the impact and incidences of occupational violence and embed a positive safety culture across ACT public health services.

Interdependent projects

The following projects are currently linked    to the Next Steps strategy:

• Healthy Minds- Thriving Workplaces Strategy
• ACT Health Territory-Wide Health Services Framework
• ACT Health Territory-Wide Health Services Strategy
• ACT Health Quality Strategy
• Workforce Strategy ACT Government
• Maternity in Focus
• Nurse/Midwife Ratios Framework, ACT Health
• ACT Public Sector (ACTPS) Mental Wellbeing Policy
• Wellbeing at Work Strategy ACT Government
• Wellbeing Index app Canberra Health Services
• Getting em n keepin em n growin em (GENKII)

The four pillars

The four pillars for the strategy were based on broad areas for action and implementation. Current and completed work under the strategy’s four pillars includes:

• Organisational wide actions
• Occupational violence
• Challenging occupational behaviours
• Safe work practices

Clinical supervision

The inclusion of clinical supervision as a stand-alone ‘pillar’ has been embedded into the NM TASC ‘The Next Steps’ Strategy to support the psychosocial safety and wellbeing of nurses and midwives.

Clinical supervision is a formally structured professional arrangement between a supervisor and one or more supervisees. It is a purposefully constructed regular meeting that provides for critical reflection on the work issues brought to that space by the supervisee(s). It is a confidential relationship within the ethical and legal parameters of practice.

Evaluation

Download the Nurses and Midwives Towards a Safer Culture Strategy Evaluation Report.

Contact

Your feedback is important to us to improve our services. If you have a question, comment or would like more information, email NM.SaferCulture@act.gov.au.