Safety Fundamentals for Person Centred Communication

The Safety Fundamentals for Person Centred Communication bring together key resources for healthcare staff and teams to support patient safety. These resources complement our existing Safety Fundamentals for Teams.

Hello My Name Is…

A simple phrase used at the start of a healthcare relationship. It recognises that healthcare is an interaction and relationship between two human beings.

What Matters to You?

A question to capture important individualised information about a person that can influence their care experience and outcomes.

Teach Back

A conversational method to help patients understand and recall important information.

REACH

A consumer (patient/family/carer) activated process of escalation that recognises that patients, and their families and carers, may detect deterioration before healthcare staff. REACH is an acronym that stands for Recognise, Engage, Act, Call, Help is on its way.

Reflect to Care

A framework to initiate and build a culture of reflective practice.

Conversational Health Literacy Assessment Tool (CHAT)

Ten open-ended questions that can be used conversationally as part of the patient assessment process to explore health literacy support needs.

Implementation

We acknowledge that these resources are available and are being used in practice. Our aim is to promote wider awareness of, and support further embedding of, these resources across all NSW Health care providers. An implementation guide is available to help healthcare teams and services to implement one or more of the Safety Fundamentals.

The National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards

The Safety Fundamentals for Person Centred Communication support healthcare organisations demonstrate that they are meeting specific actions in all eight of the National Safety and Quality Health Service Standards. More information about which actions relate to each Safety Fundamental is provided in the implementation guide.

Further information and feedback

Contact the Capability and Culture Team for more information and support in implementing the Safety Fundamentals in practice.

We would greatly value your feedback on using the Safety Fundamentals, so that we can continue to learn and improve these resources for patient safety.