Patient Safety In Good Care

Effective communication is crucial aspect of nursing yet too often is placed low on the priority list, especially at shift change. Information related to the care of patients is frequently disseminated at a crowded, noisy nurse station with several nurses rushing to leave and others attempting to get the information necessary to plan care and limit the constant distractions. It is this interaction that allows for information vital patient safety information to be communicated including the acuity of patients.

The American Nurses Association (ANA) “Code of Ethics for Nurses” (ANA, 2001) states: “The nurse promotes, advocates for, and strives to protect the health, safety, and rights of the patient”. This reflects that advocating for the patient directly correlates with the safety and well-being of the patient. The key part to patient advocacy is effective communication. In recent times, there has been a focus on the connection of effective communication between healthcare workers and patient safety. A number of Institute of Medicine reports has brought focus to the severe matter. The reports have emphasized the concern of the lack of communication in the healthcare setting and the resulting negative patient outcomes. (Hanks, 2012a). This goes back to the notion that while many healthcare professionals consider themselves as a working member of a team, we have the natural tendency to work autonomously. Therefore, it is the nurse’s duty to collaborate patient centered care by practicing good communication skills with the entire healthcare team, the patient, and the patient’s family if consent is given to assure patient safety.

Patient safety is the top priority because health situation may change within few minutes depending on severity of the case. In this incident, physical injury has not taken place but the potentiality of injury is extremely high and there is a narrow space between the risk and injury. I have determined that next time i will give my first priority for safety measures no matter what area it is. In clinical practices, if my errors harm the resident, it is personally, ethically and professionally objectionable. I have learnt to place the bed to the lowest level and raise the side rails before I leave the resident’s room. Safety is resident’s right .Safety comes everywhere as priority and careful handling the elderly population is one of the higher

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).

Communication is only effective when the receiver understands the message conveyed just as the sender wanted to. There are opportunities for improvement in the areas of communication network within Baptist Memorial Healthcare. I have observed a breakdown in communication between nurses and the patients they are caring for. A lot of times the nurse companion phones that the nurses are issued do not work properly. In this instance, the nurse is unaware of patient’s specific needs. There is not a direct line of communication to inform the nurse that the patient needs assistance. The organization is aware of this fact and is implementing training on new nurse companion phones, so that; the needs of the patient are met in a timely fashion. There

Patient safety has become a major concern in the healthcare sector because of the prevalence of medical errors. Patient safety has even stood out as its own ideal discipline and it encompasses certain areas of healthcare service provision such as reporting, analysis and prevention of medical errors (because of the upsurge of medical errors across the globe). Initially, medical errors were not considered a big issue in medical circles until there was an increased trend of medical errors across the globe which resulted into adverse medical events and a high number of patient deaths. This trend prompted the World Health Organization (WHO) to carry out an assessment of the impact of medical errors across the globe and established that at least 1 in every 10 patient across the globe is normally affected by medical errors (World Health Organization 2008).

Additionally, nurses handles different cases of patient in the hospital which requires different and more advance type of care and way of communication. For example, patients who are psychological incapacitated or critically ill requires more knowledge on how to handle them. Nurses, should not only focus on the physical needs of the patient but also their pyschological needs. Hospitals or instititution should provide training programmes that adress these needs which focus on how to properly communicate verbally and non verbal to patient and nursing protocols to enhance the communication skills of the healthcare team. Nurses, should be vigilant and anticipate the needs of the patient at all times. Handing off might sound easy but it is a very complex process that could lead to several problems. Common mistakes in the hospital is commonly cause by miscommunication that often leads to patient harm. Organization such as joint commision established a national patient safety goal in relation with handing off which provides oportunity for discussion between the giver and the receiver of information that includes patient’s current condition, care, treatment, and any changes in the

Communication can be defined as a process during which information is shared through the exchange of verbal and nonverbal messages (Brooks & Heath, 1985), whereby people create a relationship by interacting with each other (Groogan, 1999). When examining communication within a patient safety and nursing context, its significance becomes evident not only in the nurse-patient relationship, but also the

Patient safety has been described as the prevention of errors and adverse effects to patients associated with health care (WHO, 2016). Medication errors is a prevalent patient safety issue in today’s health care environment. It is estimated that approximately 10,000 preventable errors and 2000 preventable deaths occur in the Republic of Ireland alone. That means 1 in 10 people experience a medication error once entering a hospital (Oglesby, 2012). Although some of these errors may be minor many can be detrimental as some medication have more adverse symptoms than others.

Most patients would like to think that safety is a major priority at the hospital they are visiting. They would like to believe that the hospital actively engages in practices that should nearly diminish any possibility for an accident or mistake to occur. However, the premise of patient safety is relatively new. Medical errors remain a sensitive topic with patients, physicians, and hospital administrators. Physicians and other medical personnel are very reluctant to communicate information about any form of medical error. They feel that admitting to any sort of wrongdoing will have negative effects with peers and may open up the potential for legal action. The

Hospital management provides a work climate that promotes patient safety and shows that patient safety is a top priority

Hello Kimberley, I agree, on your review that Internet sites address concerns about safe  administration of medications. In the facility where I work, the focus on the National Patient Safety goals for safe medication administration are high. The process of safe administering medications to patients are shared with all staff members of our organization. Communication breakdown can cause instability of the process. When error are made, it is reviewed with all staff members, to prevent this error from happening again."Patient safety is an essential and vital component of quality nursing care. However, the nation’s health care system is prone to errors, and can be detrimental to safe patient care, as a result of basic systems flaws (Ballard, 2003).

In the Australian health care industry, patient safety is the prevention of harm to patients (IOM, 2000). There are many clinical quality and safety issues in the health care industry. It is important to address these issues because health care is a tumultuous environment. An essential part of improving the safety and quality of care provided to patients is the gathering, analysis and use of information regarding clinical performance across the organisation and implementing quality improvement strategies.

This is an interesting project; Ensuring patient safety is an important role of a professional nurse in the healthcare setting. You have mentioned different fall prevention methods used in the healthcare setting which is to protect the patient from falling by implementing fall prevention protocol. Patients in the cardiovascular unit are high risk for fall due to lack of blood perfusion from the heart to the brain tissue. To ensure patient safety and decrease fall nurse must develop a proper nursing intervention. Nurses also have to communicate clearly with the patient and incorporate the patient’s priorities of care and preference to avoid fall and further injuries.

First of all, I do not think so nursing students allowed to provide safe patient care in the hospital because they are still students. Also, professional nurse or RN might not trust that nursing students can provide care to the patients. Nursing students can take case study from patients and learn about learning environment during clinical experience, but I never see nursing students provide care to the patient in the clinical setting. However, the nursing system here might be different from in my country.