Speaking Up for Safety: Psychological Safety and Escalation
The skill of raising a concern to someone more senior, before harm happens.
Program overview
Most staff who see something unsafe say nothing. The reasons are well documented — hierarchy, uncertainty, fear of being wrong, and previous experience of being dismissed. This course treats speaking up as a learnable skill rather than a personality trait. You will practise graded assertiveness scripts, learn when to escalate and to whom, and study what leaders do that makes a team safe to speak in. WHO reports that only 25% of countries actively foster a safety culture; this course gives individuals and team leads something concrete to work with in the meantime.
Why this program
Speaking up treated as a skill, not a trait
Scripts you can use verbatim under pressure
Covers both sides
raising and receiving concerns
Grounded in what actually stops people speaking
Who it is for
Program objectives
- Explain why competent professionals stay silent about visible risks
- Describe psychological safety and its measurable effect on teams
- Apply graded assertiveness to escalate a concern
- Identify the correct escalation route when a concern is not heard
- Respond to a concern raised by a junior colleague without defensiveness
- Recognise leader behaviours that suppress or invite speaking up
Learning outcomes
- Apply a graded assertiveness script to a described clinical concern
- Identify the appropriate escalation step when a first attempt is dismissed
- Differentiate psychological safety from politeness or comfort
- Demonstrate a non-defensive response to a challenge from a junior colleague
- Evaluate a team scenario for the presence of speaking-up barriers
- Recommend two leader behaviours that would improve safety voice on a unit
Curriculum
Module 1: Why People Stay Silent
1 lessonsWhy People Stay SilentPreview
Hierarchy, uncertainty, futility and the evidence on silence.
Module 2: Psychological Safety
1 lessons- Psychological Safety
Module 3: Graded Assertiveness
1 lessons- Graded Assertiveness
Module 4: When You Are Not Heard
1 lessons- When You Are Not Heard
Module 5: Receiving a Concern
1 lessons- Receiving a Concern
Duration and structure
5 lessons across 5 modules. Duration is expressed in study hours.
What you receive
This certificate confirms completion of Speaking Up for Safety: Psychological Safety and Escalation. Duration is expressed in study hours.
Delivery format
- Self-paced — start any time.
- Study on any device.
- Lifetime access to the version you enrolled in.