Researching Patient Safety and Quality in Healthcare ─ A Nordic Perspective

Researching Patient Safety and Quality in Health Care: A Nordic Perspective is an anthology based on contributions from leading researchers on quality and safety in healthcare in the Nordic countries together with four internationally renowned patient safety authors. Research on patient safety and quality has been dominated by countries such as the USA, England, Canada, and Australia. This book addresses the current debates in research on patient safety and quality in healthcare from a Nordic perspective. What are the flavours of Nordic research within these topics? What does it add to the international research literature? This book illustrates the unique nature of researching patient safety and quality with the Nordic perspective as well as showcasing representative work. The book presents an overview of the status and evidence of international and Nordic research on quality and safety in healthcare. Four different perspectives are used to present the trends within the research field: a patient perspective, a methodological perspective, a theoretical perspective, and a clinical perspective. The book then presents the status of Nordic research in the field and displays a set of illustrative work and current research topics within the Nordic context, concluding with a discussion of the characteristic features of Nordic research on patient safety and quality in healthcare. The anthology presents an inter-professional perspective and researchers from disciplines such as medical and nursing sciences, humanities, social sciences and engineering. It is written to contribute to the patient safety cause with translational knowledge that will be useful to researchers, policy makers and healthcare managers within Nordic countries and internationally.

Karina Aase is professor in safety and head of Quality and Safety in Healthcare Systems at the University of Stavanger, Norway. Aase has led a number of national research projects within quality and safety in healthcare and has been leading the Norwegian partner group in the FP7-funded a€?Quality and Safety in European Hospitalsa€? (QUASER) study (2010-2013). There are currently four professors, two associate professors, two postdoctoral scholars, and eleven doctoral students affiliated with the Quality and Safety in Healthcare Systems research group. Research areas cover patient experiences, patient handovers, integrated care, safety culture, work practices, simulation, inter-professional education and team training, welfare technology, and accreditation. Karina Aase was head of the scientific committee for the 3rd Nordic Conference on Research in Patient Safety and Quality in Healthcare held in Stavanger 2-3rd October 2014 (NSQH2014).