Risk, Safety and Clinical Practice

Bob Heyman is Professor of Health Care Risk Management in the School of Human and Health Sciences at the University of Huddersfield, and Professor Emeritus in Health Care Research at City University, London. Previously, he held the post of Associate Dean for Research at St Bartholomew School of Nursing & Midwifery, City University. His research is concerned with qualitative approaches in health care risk management. He has written extensively on this topic in relation to a wide range of clinical contexts, particularly mental health and learning disability services and prenatal chromosomal screening. Bob Heyman is currently collaborating with the Care Quality Commission in a study of risk screening of healthcare organisations, and with The West Yorkshire Mental Health R&D Consortium in a programme of research concerned with clinical risk management in mental health services.Andy Alaszewski is an applied social scientist with a BA honours degree (Social Anthropology, Class I) and PhD (Social and Political Sciences) from the University of Cambridge. In 2001, following a successful academic career at the University of Hull he took up the posts of Professor and Director of the Centre for Health Services Studies at the University of Kent and is also Director of the Research Design Service for the South East funded by the National Institute for Health Research. For the past 30 years he has been involved in research focusing on policy making and the provision of health and social care. Increasingly his interests have focussed on the ways in which risk is framed within health and social care and the ways in which risk issues influence and shape the development of health and social care services. He is the founding editor of Health, Risk and Society an international peer-reviewed journal published by Taylor and Francis.Monica Shaw recently has recently retired from the post of Senior Research Fellow at City University, London. She is Emeritus Professor at Northumbria University where she was previously the Executive Dean of Social Sciences and the Dean for Quality, holding institution-wide responsibility for quality assurance systems. Her current research interests include the history of women's action in coal mining disputes and their changing role in ex-mining communities; the role of nurses in the delivery of quality healthcare and the barriers to multiprofessional risk management in forensic mental health services; and the escalation of regulation in public services as a response to critical cases. Monica Shaw has considerable experience both as a senior manager and a critical analyst of the impact of regulation on public and voluntary services, and she has a long history of personal involvement in the development and governance of voluntary organisations in the North-East of England.Dr. Mike Titterton is Chairperson of HALE (Health & Life for Everyone), an international charity that helps children and adults at risk of harm and provides training for health and social work staff. He also works as an international expert in health, social care and education for bodies such as the Council of Europe, NHS Health Scotland and the World Health Organisation. He was previously long-term expert and team leader for an EU Tacis programme in health education in Russia and has worked on several health and social care projects throughout Eastern Europe. He has also worked for four universities in the UK, as well as in health care and social work in the past. His research and professional interests include promoting risk literacy and reducing harmful risk behaviours.

All the chapters are well written and will assist health professionals, academics and students at undergraduate and post-graduate level who grapple with challenges created by the dominance of risk assessment. Its grounding in the real world of health care helps clarify and make useful a number of complex theoretical concepts, particularly within the areas of risk categorization and conceptualization. This book succeeds in doing what it sets out to do.

• Introduction ; 1. The concept of risk ; 2. The social construction of health risks ; 3. Values and health risks ; 4. Risk and probabilistic reasoning ; 5. Time and health risks ; 6. Information about health risks ; 7. Health risks and the media ; 8. The regulation of health risks ; 9. Health risk and the patient safety agenda