Safety Of Sharps Essay

Conversely, the How to Guide: Five Steps to Safer Surgery is an adjunct to the World Health Organization (WHO), Safe Surgery Saves Lives: The Second Global Patient Safety Challenge. In this, the primary goal is to confirm that surgical teams not only communicate, but follow safety standards in order to minimize common mistakes and insure the best outcome for surgical patients. The standards included in this literature emphasize, “improving anesthetic safety practices, ensuring surgery is undertaken on the correct part of the body, preventing surgical site infections, and improving communication and teamwork” (Beaumont & Russell, 2012). The actual checklist consists of the following 5-step process:

One of the primary goals of patient care has been safety for a long time. How patient safety is regulated has changed throughout history. Between 1917 and 1918, the American College of Surgeons developed The Minimum Standards for Hospitals which was a one page document that lead to The Joint Commission (TJC, 2014). Founded in 1951 with accreditation beginning January 1953, TJC is currently the oldest and largest organizations setting standards for patient safety (TJC, 2014). The American College of Surgeons required ethics for physicians in 1951 (TJC, 2014). Today TJC and other credentialing organizations require all staff, clinical or not, to participant in patient safety goals. Regardless of the organization you work for, patient safety will

Over the last several years, a wide variety of health care organizations have been facing a number of challenges. This is because of pressures associated with: rising costs, increasing demands and larger numbers of patients. For many facilities this has created a situation where patient safety issues are often overlooked. This is because the staff is facing tremendous amounts of pressure, long hours and more patients. The combination of these factors has created a situation where a variety of hospitals need to improve their patient safety procedures. In the case of Sharp Memorial Hospital, they are focused on addressing these issues through different strategies. To fully understand how they are able to achieve these objectives requires looking at: specific ways the organization has responded to the crisis in medical errors, their definition of patient safety, the causes of errors, systematic barriers and transformations that have been adopted. Together, these different elements will provide the greatest insights as to how the facility is coping with the crisis in patient safety.

Blaire, J., Fottler, M. D., & Savage, G. T. (Eds.). (2008). Advances in Health Care Management, Volume 7: Patient Safety in Health Care Management. Bradford, GBR: Emerald Group Publishing Ltd. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com

Needle Sharps injuries (NSI) in Australia. What can do about better safety practices to reduce injury to healthcare providers

At least half a million deaths per year could be prevented with effective implementation of systemic improvements in operating rooms. Specifically, multiple studies have found implementing the use of the WHO Surgical Safety Checklist would significantly reduce surgical morbidity and mortality due to surgical errors.

The injured health care professional may eventually need to change their career path secondary to permanent MSD’s (Menzel & Nelson, 2010). Recent studies report a sixty thousand dollar annual reduction in medical costs when safe staffing is maintained (ANA, 2011). Additionally, reduced malpractice claims, payouts, readmission, denials and fines will be experience when adequate staffing is maintained (ANA, 2011). Most noteworthy, the patient’s may experience less pain or suffering and therefore better outcomes can be anticipated with safe staffing. This sends a clear message to management; powered devices are an investment that can reduce staff injuries while also ensuring the safe handling of the patients as well.

Compared to other members of the community of health care nurses are at a significant risk of needle stick injury because of their frequent performance with vein punctures and taking care of patients suffering from different infectious diseases. Needles may cause injury to you or to someone else if they were not properly discarded after use and can also cause an injury if you do not use gloves to protect your hands while you work with needles. If a medical professional gets stuck by a needle, then they need to wash the area thoroughly with soap and contact their healthcare provider as soon as

The first thing a nurse can do is to always remember that they are a patient advocate. In the situation of an OR nurse watching a doctor perform surgery, being a patient advocate is key. The nurse’s patient is unconscious and cannot speak for themselves. Watching to make sure that whatever part of the body is being worked on is thoroughly inspected and all tools used in the surgical procedure are accounted for is one of the most effective ways that a nurse can intervene. Being a patient advocate also means telling the surgeon when a nurse happens to find something left behind. This advocacy would create an environment of communication to promote communication between all team members. Nurses can also count the surgical items being used. “To prevent leaving surgical items inside patients, the Association of perioperative Registered Nurses recommends counting all sponges, sharps, and related miscellaneous items at five different times: (1) before the procedure to establish a baseline, (2) before closure of a cavity within a cavity, (3) before wound closure begins, (4) at skin closure, and (5) at the time of permanent staff relief of either the scrub person or the circulating nurse (Treadwell, 2013). Communication with the operating room staff and checking the number of surgical

Gloves, goggles, masks and gowns are minimum recommended requirements of PPE in any clinical environment where contact with blood or bodily fluid is likely (HSE 2011). Although wearing gloves does not prevent injury. It minimises exposure and cross contamination, reducing the risk of infection (AFPP 2011). The healthcare professional in the diary decided not to wear gloves because they catch on her rings and tear. This suggests that the rings have jagged edges or stones, which potentially could cause injury to the patient and also pose as an infection risk. Professional guidelines also dictate that staff should be bare below the

The core purpose of the national patient safety goals is to indeed promote and improve patient safety. The Joint Commission (2015) lists several of them in its 2015 National Patient Safety Goals. One of the goals the author wants to elaborate more upon is: prevent mistakes in surgery. This paper will include an overview about the aforementioned national patient safety goal. It includes three methods to be followed to be able to achieve the said safety goal. The paper also highlights the importance of the issue to the general public, to the health care institutions, and to the health care professionals. Financial implications of not achieving the goal is also explored in this paper. This national patient safety goal is a multidisciplinary issue. The important roles of other professionals will be discussed as well as nursing leadership.

The Perioperative Nursing Data Sets (PNDS) are professional guidelines developed and maintained by the Association of Perioperative Registered Nurses. These guidelines outline the expectations for the OR nurse to carry out while a patient is in their care. One item of the PNDS states "the patient is free from signs and symptoms of injury due to extraneous objects" (Rothrock, 2015). Counts including sponges, sharps,

Nightingale Community Hospital has been increasing their safety standards in all three general categories, Conduct a pre-procedure verification process, mark the procedure site and a time-out is performed before the procedure over the past year. Nightingale Community Hospital’s value for safety states: “We believe that excellence begins with providing safe environment. We put our patients first as we seek to exceed the expectations of our customers with superior service, outstanding clinical care and unsurpassed responsiveness.” To reach this goal there is always more that can be done. Based on the safety reports several areas need to be looked at:

In health care settings across the country patient care is compromised by various preventable mistakes. Health care workers (HCW) are continuously pushing the boundaries of time constraints. As these demands are increased the possibility for poor patient outcomes also increase. Prevention is the first line of defense and promotes healthy practices for HCW and patients. The Joint Commission (TJC) collects data pertaining to the incidences, information surrounding each case and establishes a national quality and safety standard. TJC accredits thousands of health care establishments with the goal to provide safety and increase the quality of care provided in each setting. In 2016 TJC released a new set of National Patient Safety Goals (NPSG). The goals are meant to bring awareness to the accredited facilities and HCW of concerning hazards that need to be focused on. For instance, using two identifiers when identifying a patient to prevent medical errors, and preforming hand hygiene to reduce the risk of infections.

Each year, 385,000 needlestick injuries and other sharps related injuries are sustained by hospital based healthcare professionals; which equates to an average of almost 1,000 sharps injuries per day in the U.S. Accidental needlestick and sharps not only cause injuries, but they also carry a major risk for transmission of blood borne infections. Although virtually all healthcare workers are at risk of harm from occupational exposures such as these, the Center for Disease Control notes that nurses sustain approximately half of all needlestick injuries. While there are several precautions and regulations implemented on the administration and disposal of sharps, many