SEE YOU NOW Podcast

SEE YOU NOW Insight 25: Nurse Well-Being is Foundational to Patient Safety

March 13, 2026

Detail

More than 25 years after To Err Is Human put patient safety on the national agenda, the crisis persists. The WHO estimates that 1 in 10 patients worldwide experiences harm during medical care, and half of it is preventable. And yet one foundational factor remains overlooked: the wellbeing of the people delivering care. With more than half of nurses reporting burnout and hundreds of thousands expected to leave the profession, the workforce crisis and the patient safety crisis are now one and the same.

You cannot have excellence of any form or safety or focus on patients from a workforce that feels vulnerable, unsafe, psychologically or physically at risk. It won't happen.
Donald Berwick, MD, MPP, FRCP, President Emeritus and Senior Fellow at IHI and former Administrator of CMS

In this Insight from Episode 123: Safer Together | The Architecture of a Movement, Donald Berwick, MD, MPP, FRCP, President Emeritus and Senior Fellow at IHI and former Administrator of CMS, and Patricia McGaffigan, RN, Vice President at IHI and President of the Certification Board for Professionals in Patient Safety, make the case that healthcare must look beyond its own walls, drawing on lessons from aviation and other industries, to build cultures where psychological safety, dignity, and the freedom to speak up are the foundation of safe care. Not sentiment but essential reality.

This new episode of SEE YOU NOW explores the national safety movement through the eyes of two leaders: nurse Patricia McGaffigan and Dr. Don Berwick, founding CEO of the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. Together, they make the case for bold leadership, accountability at every level, and why nurses are essential architects of safer healthcare systems.


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