React, reframe and engage. Establishing a receiver mindset for more effective safety negotiations

Area of Science:

• Healthcare communication
• Patient safety
• Organizational psychology

Background:

• Receiver responses to voiced concerns are a barrier to healthcare professionals speaking up.
• Current speaking-up training primarily focuses on the speaker, neglecting the receiver's role.

Purpose of the Study:

• To introduce a novel Receiver Mindset Framework (RMF).
• To help healthcare professionals understand the impact of their responses when concerns are raised.

Main Methods:

• The RMF integrates findings from receiver-focused literature and empirical studies.
• Studies included vignette analysis, retrospective accounts, and simulated interactions to examine receiver behavior.

Main Results:

• Speaking up is an intergroup interaction influenced by social identity, context, and speaker stance.
• Receivers often struggle with emotional management and clarifying concerns when spoken up to.
• Targeted receiver training is largely absent in current speaking-up programs.

Conclusions:

• The RMF, grounded in Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT), reframes speaking-up training as a mutual negotiation.
• This framework enhances healthcare professionals' ability to listen, understand, and negotiate for patient and staff safety.