Patient Safety: A Priority In A Clinical Setting

They are responsible for what seems like everyone and everything. However, nurses have all the tools they need to be effective and safe nurses early on. The standards of precautions are one of those tools nurses are taught that aids them in protecting every patient they care for, including him or herself. Regardless of the patient’s health status, the nurse should use their better judgment when implementing care. In order to prevent interruption in the chain of infection, nurses are to adhere to the standards of precautions by thinking critically when providing patient care. No matter how presumably capable or experience a colleague may be, evidence-based practice proves that standard precautions are greatly impacting the nursing field. Nurses need to stick to their guns and not compromise their beliefs for fear of being the odd man out. The more the nurse implements those practices in their everyday routine the more it will become second nature. By gaining knowledge of the importance of standard precautions, the nurse will in turn become more compliant and adherent, and be better suited to provide effective quality care to all

Protecting the patient from illness and infection can by control if the staff knows the infections control procedures (wearing glows, protective clothing, washing the hands before and after a contact with a patient.

According to the AHRQ: National Healthcare Quality Report (2009), the goal of quality of health is to help people stay healthy, learn to live with a disability or chronic disease, recuperate from an illness, and deal with dying and death. However, instead of delivering health care services that are safe, patient centered, equitable, and timely. Many patients do not receive needed care. When care is received many times it is unsafe or too late

The Pennsylvania Patient Safety Authority is a state agency founded by the Medical Care Availability and Reduction of Error (MCARE) on 2002. Moreover, the agency creates the greatest database system for patient safety which known as Pennsylvania Patient Safety Reporting System PA-PSRS. The system was developed by contract with Pennsylvania-based independent, ECRI, in partnership with Hewlett Packard Enterprise, a non-profit health services research agency, the Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP), a Pennsylvania-based, non-profit health research organization and also a leading international information technology firm. Statewide compulsory for using PA-PSRS to report serious events in hospital, ambulatory surgical facilities and

In our nursing practice, the nurse is required to hold essential skills of clinical judgment and be a patient advocate to ensure the safety and the well-being of the patient we care for. Patient safety can be compromised if nurses are not able to identify potential issues thru assessment of the patient's sign and symptoms. Patient safety can also be compromised if nurses are afraid to speak up for our patient and question what we think or feel are unsafe acts or orders.

Patient safety is defined as the prevention of harm to patients, and is the number one priority in healthcare facilities. All healthcare facilities have policies in place to keep patients as safe as possible. These policies can include anything from preventing infection to education. Every facility will have different policies in place, thus all patient safety policies will emphasize a culture of safety in a suitable environment. One policy that is of concern is the minimum number of nurses staffed on a unit at any given time, or the nurse to patient ratio. Every state and every

Quality of care, and patient safety matters. Quality of care does not happen overnight; it is a system that an organization creates to measure, assess, and improve performance. This quality management system is a set of interrelated or interacting elements that organizations use to direct and control the implementation of quality policies and achieve quality objectives (Spath, 2013).

Hi Mary. I agree, there is a need for increased fall education and patient safety awareness of staff. Nurses play a key role in patient safety. I believe that being a nurse is a constant evolution, we evolve as we practice. Nursing will never be stagnant and we see every day that nursing research helps to bring forth more effective nursing care. It is vital to emphasize the clinical nursing research to guide nursing practice and to improve the health and quality of life of our patients (Polit and Beck, 2012). Hospitalization increases fall risk because of unfamiliar environment, illnesses, and treatment. Patient falls and fall-related injuries are devastating to patients, clinicians, and the health care team. A single fall may result in a fear

Patient safety is an integral part of quality nursing care and patient outcomes. Quality care is dependent on the health care providers, nurses, hospitals, the government, pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies. The perplex multitude of contributing factors dictate the quality and safety that is provided to patients. Each entity is responsible for ensuring safe delivery of care to patients and their families. Our nation’s healthcare system was initially developed to treat acute illnesses and most of the money is spent on chronic conditions related to the aging population. Health care needs are becoming more complex than ever before, which results in a demand for nurses to achieve higher levels of education to meet these shifts (Institute

As we all know, patient safety in a healthcare setting is extremely important and is to be taken very seriously. This is a very challenging topic with any healthcare establishment, because people do make errors and it’s only human. It is everybody’s job within the facility, hospital, or any healthcare setting to work on making sure that the safety of every patient that enters and leaves their building is safe. We want patients to feel safe and confident when they have to go to the hospital for a procedure, or even to a skilled nursing facility to have rehabilitation or to eventually stay long term.

The process of the nursing staff decided that it would be best to use restraints to prevent Mr. J from falling, in this situation with Mr. J developing redness to the lower spine, the UAP who noticed the redness should have alerted the Nurse who then implements a plan of action for skin breakdown, such as, a turning schedule, skin creams, skin protectants, and out of bed for meals, this would have prevented the outcome of a pressure injury. An UAP cannot function out of their scope of practice, by assessment of the client’s skin. The structure of the hospital should ensure client safety, the appropriate skill of the nurse and implement a plan that provides additional staff for turning clients that are unable to turn themselves. Through quality and client safety, hospitals should track clients that are admitted for falls, post- op, elderly, high risk for falls, history of falls, and high risk for pressure injuries. With the use of restraints clients are often confused in certain environments, nurses need to utilize least restrict measures to keep clients safe from falls, by placing them closer to the nurse’s station, hourly rounding, make sure call light is always close, and their needs are met.

Safety is an important part of patient care and it can be observed starting at the time a patient arrive to the hospital. The first safety item is the patient arm band which will identify the patient by containing not only patient’s full name and date of birth but also patient’s hospital identification number. Another type of patient safety is the allergy band wrist and also tags on patient EHR as well as signs at the patients’ room that indicate if the patient is at fall risk or any other type of precautions needed at time of entering patient’s room like PPE, isolation or visitors requirements. Another type of safety tool on Epic is the italicization of patient last name if two or more patients have the same last name. In reference to fall risk a screening assessment for fall is used at time of admition also bed and chair alarms are implemented for patients that are at risk, if an alarm is activated any staff member close to the room is required to check on the patient plus the nurse who is in taking care of that patient will also receive an alarm of her/his hospital assigned phone. On the other hand a patient name and date of birth is required a the time of medicating a patient plus the patient’s arm band needs to be scanned as well as the nurse ID of the nurse who is providing the medication (six rights). To prevent patient ulcers, Braden scale test is used to recognize patients who need to be rotated. Also, immunizations are verify to be sure patients have all the

Currently, patient safety is a key driver in healthcare. It is defined as prevention harm to the patient during a medical procedure and prevents medical errors, adverse effects due to the provision of healthcare rather than underlying disease process of the patient’s. In nursing, attention to patient safety is not new, in the center of the roots, tracing back to the 19th century with a great emphasis on the safety of patients and ethics of the nightingale to protect

In relation to maintaining the safety of a patient whilst in the Anaesthetic Room, Patient Monitoring is a fundamental practice within the role of an Operating Department Practitioner (ODP) as instructed by the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC, 2012). Interestingly, the word ‘monitor’ comes from Latin, and it means “to warn” (Pillai, 2007). As suggested by the derivation however; a ‘monitor’ can only ‘warn’ and it is therefore up to the ODP to make conscientious observations of the patient with help of clinically interpreted information from

The World Health Organization defines patient safety as “the reduction of risk of unnecessary harm associated with health care to an acceptable minimum”. (Emanuel, 2008) There are many things that nurses must do to assure that this is being executed while preforming care to each patient. The main concern when addressing patient safety would be the proper use of adequate staff and the newest evidence based practice. While it is imperative that each nurse and all other staff members are performing safe practice with each and every patient, it is also important that there are enough educated and qualified nurses and other staff using the most up to date proper