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BACKGROUND: Patient safety and quality care require learning organizations. For organizations to pivot and progress they need a workforce skilled and confident in voicing ideas and errors. Expressing issues related to patient safety and quality improvement can be defined as voice behavior. METHODS: This scoping review aimed to answer two questions: 1) What is the scope of the study of voice behavior in healthcare? 2) How do new graduates in allied health use their voice? The Joanna Briggs guidelines were used to identify 76 articles that were explored using a descriptive and evaluative approach to map the depth and breadth of this topic and identify research gaps. FINDINGS: The review revealed that nursing and medicine feature in voice behavior studies, but few studies focus on allied health. An exploration of the concepts emerging from these studies revealed eight topics: power, risk, tenure, leadership, intervention, self, climate, and strategies. CONCLUSION: Synthesis of the reviewed studies highlights that we know little about allied health new graduates' voice behavior in healthcare. Exploration of voice behaviors with this group will inform education and workplace settings about ways to grow professionals who are confident and competent in speaking up for patient safety and quality improvement.
HEALTHCARE SYSTEMS are complex networks, continuously influenced and shaped by cultural, political, and historical mechanisms. Successful navigation of these networks by healthcare professionals requires not just discipline-specific knowledge and skills, but sophisticated communication skills for high-risk, fastpaced, and culturally complex situations. When healthcare professionals communicate new ideas or notify team members of mistakes made by themselves or others, these behaviors are called voice behaviors.
This paper presents a scoping review on the study of voice behavior in healthcare, with a focus on allied health new graduates. Following the Joanna Briggs scoping review guidelines,(1) a two-level search was completed. The 76 articles identified for this paper are outlined and synthesized using both descriptive and evaluative means. The key topics identified are expanded in the discussion, with gaps in the literature and future research topics highlighted.
Definition of Key Terms
Voice Behavior: Voice behavior has been extensively explored in the realms of organizational psychology, management, justice and healthcare.(2-4) Voice behavior can be described as employee behaviors which challenge an organization to learn and change in order...