Just Cause Culture Essay

“Just cause culture” consistently emerges as one of the dimensions or subcultures of a safety culture (Halligan & Zecevic, 2011; Sammer et al., 2010). Similar to safety culture, the concept of a “just cause culture” has its origins in high-risk industries such as aviation and nuclear power, arising from engineering and human-factors research. Likewise, this research accelerated after the Chernobyl disaster of 1986. A pioneer in organizational safety research, Reason (1997) described five attributes of a safety culture: an informed culture, a reporting culture, a “just cause culture”, a flexible culture, and a learning culture. Both Reason (1997) and Marx (2001) stressed the importance of balancing safety and accountability in a “just cause culture”. Similar to safety culture, there is no commonly recognized

They include time constraints, resistance to change by nurses, fear of reprisal, cost and reliance on hierarchal decision-making. Pappas reported nursing costs comprise 50 percent of most hospital budgets. Expenses related to shared decision making structures includes education costs for members, release time and replacement costs for nurses to attend councils. A “just cause culture” enhances and strengthens the health care services. Yet, many health care facilities do not have a policy to promote “just cause culture”, much less practice it. Most people are not even familiar with the term. This must change, as the concept is a critical facet of health care provision. Also, due to the fear of reprisal, health care worker may feel reluctant to report errors made by a fellow colleague. For instance, when a nurse witnesses a mistake made by another and makes the first move by reporting that mistake and it is viewed by the affected colleague as unjust, the victim will often feel a need for retaliation. This kind of sentiment does not promote “just cause culture” in the hospital