Plan your own campaign

Please find below some ideas and tips on how to plan your campaign. Please note that these are just suggestions and we ask you to further develop your own innovative ideas for marking this year’s World Patient Safety Day. The year 2020 has been designated as the International Year of the Nurse and Midwife  and thus, it is suggested that you also try to provide opportunities to highlight the vital role of nurses and midwives in your World Patient Safety Day campaign

Tips for a successful campaign

• Adapt WHO’s global campaign materials to your national and local context. 
• Build partnerships, as many voices will strengthen our call for action. Engage partners and stakeholders early on including patient organizations, professional associations and academic and educational institutions.
• Identify your network of influencers to amplify campaign messages such as key personalities, patient representatives, professionals, celebrities, innovators, entrepreneurs and social media influencers.
• Remember to be inclusive: include patients, the public and health workers from all categories and all levels of care – administrators, policy-makers, doctors, pharmacists, nurses, midwives, laboratory technicians, community health workers, porters, cleaners and housekeeping staff.
• Create awareness and a culture of patient safety that empowers patients, health workers and leaders to communicate openly and learn from errors rather than blame.

Key stakeholders

Reach out to a range of stakeholders to join your campaign:

• Health workers who are working in clinical and non-clinical areas at all levels of health care
• Policy-makers, regulators, parliamentarians, insurance and legal entities, external evaluation organizations (health, labour, environment and security sectors)
• Health care leaders, administrators and managers
• Academic and research institutions
• Patients, families, care-givers, communities and the wider public
• Professional associations, international organizations, developmental partners, labour unions
• Patient and civil society organizations
• Industry /private sector (e.g., pharmaceutical industry, medical devices manufacturers, IT, digital developers).

Activity ideas

Please note any events or activities planned for World Patient Safety Day 2020 should be carried out according to national or local regulations, including within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic, following all safety protocols and procedures to avoid any transmission of infection. Creative approaches and virtual events should be considered in these times, in particular. 

Light up a monument or landmark

• In collaboration with your local or national authorities, arrange to light up a prominent monument, public space, or natural feature in orange on 17 September. If your planned events go beyond the day itself, you may wish to extend it for the whole week and beyond.
• Illuminate monuments, hospitals or buildings as a gesture of respect and gratitude to all health workers, to recognize the essential work health workers do.
• For buildings or monuments that are usually lit up in your local area, town or city, see if it is possible to have one or more lit up in orange instead.
• Share photos of your lit-up monuments at patientsafety@who.int and through your social media channels using #PatientSafety and #WorldPatientSafetyDay #HealthWorkerSafety.

Acknowledge patient safety champions

Organize awards or a "Hall of Fame" in health care facilities to recognize health worker safety and patient safety champions.

Events

• Organize public events, either virtual or in-person as per local regulations, to highlight the importance of health worker safety as a priority for providing safe care to patients. Encourage active participation of patients, health workers, health care leaders, patient, professional and labour organizations, and health sector partners, among other stakeholders.
• Organize technical seminars and webinars on health worker safety and patient safety.
• Ask health care leaders and influencers to promote World Patient Safety Day on social media, websites, television and radio interviews and use the slogan ‘Safe health workers, Safe patients’ or the call for action “Speak up for health worker safety!” in their speeches and interviews.
• At the health care facility level, organize an open day for the media and patients to see the steps you have taken to reduce patient harm by investing in health worker safety. Showcase your initiatives to keep health workers and patients safe to the public.
• Identify and contact influencers to “Speak up for health worker safety!” and support World Patient Safety Day 2020 activities.
• Have a small cake ceremony for health workers, or arrange or bake an orange carrot cake for health workers to display gratitude for their hard work to keep patients safe.

Social media

• Use #PatientSafety #WorldPatientSafetyDay #HealthWorker hashtags and the slogan ‘Safe health workers, Safe patients’ and “Speak up for health worker safety!” on social media.
• Follow WHO on our official Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, You Tube, SnapChat, TikTok and Pinterest channels. Share, subscribe and amplify our patient safety and health worker safety messages.
• Use the WHO social media materials to make your own social campaign and to show your support (social media frames, tiles).
• Ask celebrities, influencers, health workers and leaders to take their photo with “Speak up for health worker safety!” signs and post them on social media. Use WHO social media messages.
• Identify health worker safety and patient safety champions, and get their consent to tell their stories on your social media channels.

Media

• Contact media in advance of World Patient Safety Day to secure their interest and support; provide them with information and impactful testimonials. Use information from the WHO website to inform media about key messages, facts and figures and issues of health worker safety and patient safety.
• Produce television or radio spots promoting health worker safety and patient safety.
• Reach out to radio stations. WHO’s campaign essentials will feature radio messages that can be translated into local languages.

Art

• Approach artists to create artwork (for example paintings, handcrafts) related to health worker safety and patient safety, showcasing their interdependence.
• Create songs or jingles highlighting the importance of health worker safety and patient safety.
• Use poetry and creative writing to pay tribute to World Patient Safety Day 2020.

Policy and advocacy activities

• Introduce a pledge related to the theme of World Patient Safety Day 2020.
• Use World Patient Safety Day as an opportunity to launch national policies and technical products related to health worker safety and patient safety.

Visual displays and souvenirs

• Produce and display World Patient Safety Day banners, posters and electronic visual displays.
• Produce and distribute World Patient Safety Day souvenirs such as t-shirts, mugs, caps, bags, pins, lanyards, car stickers, and others. 

Health care educational institutions and academia

• Advocate for patient safety, including aspects of health worker safety, to be a part of the curriculum.
• Organize “virtual student events” on the day.
• Invite health workers and patients to your events to share their testimonials.
• Reach out to academics and the research community through conferences, webinars, symposia and seminars.
• Organize special editions of newsletters and journals dedicated to health worker safety and patient safety during August–September 2020 or throughout the year until next World Patient Safety Day, in September 2021.
• Recognize “Young champions of patient safety” or “Young champions of health worker safety” to inspire research in their area.
• Organize in-service training for health care professionals on health worker safety.

Health care industry

• If your company produces medical devices, applications or other medical products, demonstrate to your customers, through activities and events, how you are prioritizing health worker safety and patient safety.