Danish Society for Patient Safety, Denmark and WHO Patient Safety Champion; Denmark

Retired IT professional, with an ancient M.A. in English and more recent work in Rhetoric, 16 years as a patient safety champion. In 2007 I started volunteering as a WHO Patients for Patient Safety Champion for the Danish Society for Patient Safety. I started this work a year after my husband died unexpectedly as the result of a severe medication error. It was completely preventable, and that was my motivation for becoming a patient safety champion. Since then, I have been involved in many of the Society’s projects and work groups, representing the patient / carer perspective. I have found that many adverse events could be avoided with improved communications between health care professionals and patient / carer, and by giving the patient / carer more of a voice in their treatment and care. Some of my more recent work has been participating in workshops on the best way to learn from adverse events, on how to cope with ‘the difficult conversation’ after an adverse event, and as guest speaker at a workshop for The Danish Health Data Authority on what data I, as a patient, want access to. I have been a regular guest lecturer to Danish junior doctors on their mandatory communications course since 2014. I am also a member of the Patient Safety Advisory Board (the advisory board to the Danish Society for Patient Safety).