Unquestionably the top priority for all involved in healthcare should be patient safety. In the complex 
and challenging world of healthcare provision within the NHS there are always multiple, often conflicting demands put upon services and the individuals who work within them.
Pivotal role in safety…
Patient safety can be linked to multiple factors, but team and leadership skills are increasingly recognised as vital factors in ensuring patient safety. There is now a raft of literature published over more recent years focusing specifically on this field, and it has been “clearly shown that effective leaders play a pivotal role in promoting team performance and safety”[i]. In their in-depth literature review, Kunzle et al demonstrate how “effective leadership is characterised by clear and unambiguous behaviour which is adaptable to situational demands”.
Effective leaders play a pivotal role in promoting team performance and safety….
Tranformational vs transational…
Findings from industrial safety and leadership can also be applied to the healthcare settings. Flin and Yule[ii] showed the importance of participative, transformational styles for safety at all levels of management, with transactional styles more effective at supervisory level. They concluded that senior managers have a “prime influence on the organisation’s safety culture”.
Leadership development schemes in the healthcare setting aim to equip clinicians’ with a greater understanding and set of skills which they will be able to apply specifically to patient safety. The question then arises about other ways in which we can improve patient safety? Is it possible for instance to look to an individual’s ability to apply specific leadership skills to improve patient safety?
Personality characteristics most likely to affect safety…
Again, drawing parallels with other industries’ experiences Firth-Cozens et al[iii], concluded that psychometrics have been shown to have “strong implications for later performance”. Their in-depth literature review identified characteristics most likely to affect safety which included low risk perception, sensation seeking, Type A behaviour, high self esteem, psychological ill health and attitudes concerning safety. Obviously it is important to pull in and attract a wide range skill set within our clinical and non clinical teams. But psychometrics could not only be used to identify key areas that could become future problem areas when recruiting, but also to identify support and development that may be needed to address these through the individual’s career.
Psychological testing out ranked all other factors in predicting ultimate job performance
Hunter and Hunter
Psychological testing out ranked all other factors in predicting performance…
When the use of psychometrics as a selection tool have been studied and linked to later performance, they “have been remarkably successful”[iv],[v] Hunter and Hunter[vi] demonstrated that psychological testing out ranked all other factors in predicting ultimate job performance, with a strikingly low validity coefficient for interviewing, a feature that is common in research on selection. A longitudinal study of anaesthetists showed that personality measures discriminated significantly between the best and poorest performers at both a 3 and 8 year follow up period[vii].
The benefits of using psychometric tools to identify key characteristics such as leadership skills have been linked to ultimate job performance.
Evidenced link between patient safety and leadership skills…
To conclude, there is a body of research that now clearly links patient safety to leadership skills. The benefits of using psychometric tools to identify key characteristics such as leadership skills have been linked to ultimate job performance, with a stronger link than some more traditional methods such as interviewing.
Dearden Search and Selection specialises in supporting NHS organisations select the most talented leaders. If you would like to improve your ability to select those who will have the best ultimate job performance, please contact us on search.selection@deardenjobs.co.uk or 01404 814248.
References:
[i] Künzle B, Kolbe M, Grote G. Ensuring patient safety through effective leadership behaviour: a literature review. Safety Sci 2010;48:1-17.
[ii] Flin R, Yule S. Leadership for safety: Industrial Experience. Qual Saf Health Care2004;13:ii45-ii51
[iii] Firth-Cozens J, Cording H, Ginsburg R. Can we select health professionals who provide safer care? Qual Saf Health Care2003;12:i16-i20
[iv] Reeve PE, Vickers MD, Horton JN. Selecting anaesthetists: the use of psychological tests and structured interviews. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine1993;86:400–05
[v] Gilligan JH, Watts C, Welsh FKS, et al. Square pegs in round holes: has psychometric testing a place in choosing a surgical career? A preliminary report of work in progress. Ann R Coll Surg 1999;81:73–9.
[vi] Hunter JE, Hunter RF. Validity and utility of alternative predictors of job performance. Psychol Bull1984;96(1):72–98.
[vii] Reeve PE, Vickers MD, Horton JN. Selecting anaesthetists: the use of psychological tests and structured interviews. Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine1993;86:400–05.