South Bend, IN — Nearly half of health care workers view their organization’s safety culture unfavorably – and the feeling is even more common among those who work overnight or weekend shifts
For its State of Health Care Safety 2026 report, Press Ganey – a health care performance improvement firm – collected data from 1.3 million health care employees across 225 health systems and 3,846 facilities in the United States. It also looked at around 7.1 million safety events to “examine where safety performance is strengthening, where it remains fragile and what leadership actions will accelerate progress.”
Findings show that 46.6% of the workers don’t have a positive view of their employer’s safety culture. And those who work night shifts have lower safety perceptions across every dimension measured.
In particular, night shift workers are 17% less likely than their peers working day shifts to believe their organization cares about their safety. They’re also 11% less likely to believe leadership collaborates to make conditions safe.
Meanwhile, weekend health care teams largely aligned with the day shift on resources and teamwork but trailed on prevention and reporting.
Other findings:
- Night shift workers are twice as likely to raise concerns about safety and security.
- Reported assaults on nurses remain elevated above pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels and have continued to inch higher – with night shift nurses experiencing the brunt.
Researchers recommend that executive leadership develop strategies to improve safety, including treating safety as an outcome, elevating safety to the board of director level, and using predictive analytics and other technologies to provide early warnings.
