Patient participation for safer health care - interviews with physicians and nurses

Patient participation to achieve safer care is an area of growing policy, research and health care management and practice interest. Patients are uniquely placed to observe their treatment, care and physical environment throughout their journey in the health care system. However, very few studies have investigated health care providers attitudes and beliefs concerning patient participation for improved patient safety. This study explored factors that acted as facilitators and/or barriers to patient participation for safer care, as perceived by physicians and nurses in Swedish health care. Interviews were conducted with 13 physicians and 11 nurses, using a purposeful sampling strategy to achieve a heterogeneous sample of providers. We identified nine categories of factors, many of which functioned as barriers to patient participation to achieve safer care.