Developing a conceptual model for safety analysis in health organizations : Élaboration d'un modèle conceptuel d'analyse de la sécurité dans les organisations de santé

Safety is sometimes presented as an action (e.g., efforts to eliminate the causes of nuisances to persons or property or to reduce the effects of such nuisances); at other times it is presented as a state (e.g., a situation in which the range of foreseeable risks is acceptable; the state of a person or thing that is free of danger; or a feeling of tranquillity, confidence, and safety from harm, di [...] The relationship that links an observer to an object being observed modifies both the observer (as his/her knowledge of the concept evolves) and the object observed (by the perception of the observer). [...] An ontological discussion makes it possible to situate the concept of safety in relation to other objects of analysis and, especially, in relation to the concept of accident that prevails in much of the literature on safety. [...] The extent of the impact that will have interventions focused on one phenomenon on the other phenomenon will depend on the proximity between the concepts of accident and safety (illustrated by the angle of intersection between the two planes). [...] Stone[7], for example, defines safety as the satisfaction of “basic human needs,” and goes on to emphasize the importance of the projects that underlie the definition of these basic needs in order to explain the conflicts that can arise at the political level.