Psychological Safety among Community Health Officers (CHOs) in Selected Districts of West Bengal and its Impact on the Profession
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31674/mjn.2026.v18i01.004Abstract
Background: Psychological safety is particularly crucial, as it directly influences decision-making, error reporting, teamwork, and overall job performance. Community Health Officers (CHOs) play an essential role in India’s comprehensive primary healthcare system. Their ability to make decisions, minimize errors, and innovate is important to provide excellent patient care. The present study was adopted to assess psychological safety among CHOs and measure its impact on the profession. Methods: A community-based cross-sectional and quantitative study on 103 randomly selected female CHOs. Data pertaining to socio-demographics and attitude regarding psychological safety and its impact on profession were collected via interview using a validated, semi-structured questionnaire and tools. Results: The majority (77.67%) of participants were 24-34 years old, unmarried (65.05%), and passed the class-12th standard (85.44%). Two-thirds (66.99%) of the participants were GNM, and the rest were B.Sc. nurses, with 82.52% having 1–5 years of work experience. 15.53% of participants reported experiencing job-related stress. The majority (67.96%) of participants reported a moderate level of psychological safety, and 13.6% reported a high level of psychological safety. Most (64.08%) participants felt that psychological safety had an average positive impact on their profession. A strong (r = 0.93) positive correlation and significant (t = 25.44, p < 0.05) relationship was found between psychological safety and its impact on profession among CHOs. Age and experience of CHOs significantly associate with the level of impact of psychological safety on their profession. Conclusion: A significant association between psychological safety and its impact on the profession exists, and healthcare administrators should implement targeted strategies to strengthen psychological safety in primary healthcare settings.
Keywords:
Community Health Officer, Impact on Profession, Psychological SafetyDownloads
References
Amoadu, M., Agyare, D. F., Doe, P. F., & Abraham, S. A. (2025). Examining the impact of psychosocial safety climate on working conditions, well-being and safety of healthcare providers: a scoping review. BMC Health Services Research, 25(1), 90. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-025-12254-2
Batra, N., & Sharma, K. K. (2025). Role of community health officers: Opportunities and challenges. International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health, 12, 1557-1563. https://doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20250654
Bahadurzada, H., Kerrissey, M., & Edmondson, A. C. (2024). Speaking up and taking action: Psychological safety and joint problem-solving orientation in safety improvement. Healthcare, 12(8), 812. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare12080812
Chakraborty, B., Trivedi, K., Kiran, K. A., & Sarkar, B. (2025). Effectiveness of a training module on Psychological Safety among nursing personnel in a hospital in Ranchi. The Malaysian Journal of Nursing (MJN), 17(2), 188-196. https://doi.org/10.31674/mjn.2025.v17i02.018
Cochran, W. G. (1977). Sampling techniques (3rd ed.). John Wiley & Sons. https://www.scribd.com/document/534046574/Cochran-1977-Sampling-Techniques-Third-Edition
Das, N., Gandhi, B., & Dongre, A. R. (2023). Interpersonal challenges faced by community health officers at health and wellness centres in delivery of comprehensive primary health care at tribal setting of Gujarat: a mixed methods study. Journal of Indian Association of Preventive and Social Medicine, 14(2), 143-149. https://doi.org/10.51957/Healthline_500_2023
Edmondson, A. (1999). Psychological safety and learning behavior in work teams. Administrative Science Quarterly, 44(2), 350-383. https://doi.org/10.2307/2666999
Geraghty, T. (2020). The psychological safety tool: Measuring team dynamics and open communication in complex systems. Psych Safety Publishing. https://psychsafety.com/measure-psychological-safety/
Grailey, K. E., Murray, E., Reader, T., & Brett, S. J. (2021). The presence and potential impact of psychological safety in the healthcare setting: an evidence synthesis. BMC Health Services Research, 21(1), 1-15. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-021-06740-6
Indian Nursing Council. (2020). Revised regulations and curriculum for B.Sc. Nursing program. Government of India. https://www.indiannursingcouncil.org/uploads/pdf/1625655521119217089560e588e166460.pdf
Kim, H. Y. (2017). Statistical notes for clinical researchers: Chi-squared test and Fisher's exact test. Restorative Dentistry & Endodontics, 42(2), 152. https://doi.org/10.5395/rde.2017.42.2.152
Kishanrao, S. (2023). Empowering Nurse-CHOs to be an Effective Mid-Level Health Provider!. International Journal of Nursing & Care, 1(3), 1-8. https://doi.org/10.31579/2835-8147/038
Law, R., Dollard, M. F., Tuckey, M. R., & Dormann, C. (2011). Psychosocial safety climate as a lead indicator of workplace bullying and harassment, job resources, psychological health and employee engagement. Accident Analysis & Prevention, 43(5), 1782-1793. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.aap.2011.04.010
Lawshe, C. H. (1975). A quantitative approach to content validity. Personnel Psychology, 28(4), 563–575. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1744-6570.1975.tb01393.x
Nembhard, I. M., & Edmondson, A. C. (2006). Making it safe: The effects of leader inclusiveness and professional status on psychological safety and improvement efforts in health care teams. Journal of Organizational Behavior: The International Journal of Industrial, Occupational and Organizational Psychology and Behavior, 27(7), 941-966. https://doi.org/10.1002/job.413
Newman, A., Donohue, R., & Eva, N. (2017). Psychological safety: A systematic review of the literature. Human Resource Management Review, 27(3), 521-535. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hrmr.2017.01.001
Pandey, S., Majumdar, S., Mukherjee, S., & Roy, M. (2026). Challenges faced by community health officers in delivering comprehensive primary health care at Ayushman Arogya Mandir in a rural area of West Bengal: a cross-sectional study. Healthline, 17(1), 75-81 https://doi.org/10.51957/Healthline_809_2026
Park, H. A. (2013). An introduction to logistic regression: from basic concepts to interpretation with particular attention to nursing domain. Journal of Korean Academy of Nursing, 43(2), 154-164.https://doi.org/10.4040/jkan.2013.43.2.154
Patole, S. (2026). Psychological safety in healthcare–helping everyone to speak up. In Seminars in Fetal and Neonatal Medicine, 31(3), 101738 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.siny.2026.101738
Polit, D. F., & Beck, C. T. (2008). Nursing research: Generating and assessing evidence for nursing practice. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. United States.
Rajput, K. (2026, April 16). Centre introduces clinical support application for community health officers. Medical Dialogues. https://medicaldialogues.in/news/health/centre-introduces-clinical-support-application-for-community-health-officers-168659
Thakuria, B., Das, G., & Kakati, S. (2025). Challenges of Community Health Officers working in Health and Wellness Centers, Sonitpur, Assam: A qualitative study. International Journal of Multidisciplinary Research, 7(4), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.36948/ijfmr.2025.v07i04.52590
Tripathi, N., Parhad, P., Garg, S., Biswal, S. S., Ramasamy, S., Panda, A., ... & Keshri, V. R. (2024). Performance of health and wellness centre in providing primary care services in Chhattisgarh, India. BMC Primary Care, 25(1), 360. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12875-024-02603-1
Vogt, K. S., Baker, J., Coleman, R., Kendal, S., Griffin, B., Anjum, T., ... & Johnson, J. (2024). How can we measure psychological safety in mental healthcare staff? Developing questionnaire items using a nominal groups technique. International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 36(3), mzae086. https://doi.org/10.1093/intqhc/mzae086
World Health Organization. (1996). The WHOQOL-BREF: Introduction, administration, scoring and generic version of the assessment. World Health Organization. https://apps.who.int/iris/handle/10665/63529
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2026 The Malaysian Journal of Nursing (MJN)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
