A narrative journey into the borderland of patient safety: Toward an expanded, relational concept of safety

Abstract

“Patient safety” is routinely defined in health services globally as “safety for patients against harm and risk of injury in health care.” (Danish Board of Quality in Health Care, 2022, p. 28; translated by the author). This is a standardized, broad, and general definition of what counts as safety. In this article, I argue for an expanded, relational concept of patient safety revolving around experienced patient safety. Recognizing safety as vital for all groups of patients, I follow a dialogical, critical-reflexive approach to focus on safety in a somatic hospital setting in Denmark as it is experienced by people with lived experience of mental distress. Safety in this context is often compromised, contributing to inequity in health for people with mental distress. I present and analyze the narratives of two experts by experience about their somatic hospital stay. As an analytical approach, I draw on Frank’s dialogical narrative analysis together with elements from Bakhtin’s theory of dialogue and Foucault’s theory of power/knowledge. Forefronting voices of those rarely asked and seldom heard, dialogical narrative analysis provides insight into how “patient safety” is enacted through situated negotiations of meaning in the narratives of people with lived experience. The storytellers are continuously struggling to fit in and to be seen as human beings, trying to resist public narratives on mental distress that threaten to limit their scope of action and who they can become. The discussion highlights how unintended emotional and psychosocial harm limit the benefits of patient safety for certain groups in society. In particular, shame, individualized responsibility, and internalized inferiority hinder equity in health. Building on my analysis, I suggest a collaborative, participatory approach for coproducing further knowledge through joint analysis with people with lived experience and nurses from somatic hospital wards.