How To Promote Patient Safety In Nursing
5. Learn from incidents and near misses – “To prevent errors, we need to understand what causes them,” said Rosemary Gibson, MS, senior advisor to The Hastings Center in Garrison, New York, and principal author of Wall of Silence: The Untold Story of the Medical Mistakes That Kill and Injure Millions of Americans.

How does a nurse promote patient safety?

How Nurses Influence Patient Outcomes – The link between patient safety and patient outcomes is clear. Patient harm as a result of adverse events is one of the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in the world, according to the WHO. Because of the enormous role nurses play in patient safety, they can also have a significant impact on patient outcomes.

Nurses spend more time with patients than other health care professionals. A study published in The American Journal of Medicine estimates that nurses spend roughly a third of their shift in direct contact with patients, compared to just around 15% for physicians. This provides nurses with ample opportunity to influence care and advocate on behalf of their patients.

A nurse’s ability to positively influence patient care is often dependent on their work environment. There is a clear link between the work environment of nurses and the risk of adverse events and/or adverse outcomes. When the quality of the former goes down, the latter two often rise.

Nurse-to-patient ratio Workload Shift length Leadership

Therefore, facilitating optimal working conditions for nurses benefits not only nursing staff but their patients as well. Ample evidence also suggests that having more highly educated and well-trained nurses on staff can lead to improved patient safety and outcomes.

What is patient safety goal in nursing?

What are National Patient Safety Goals? –

National Patient Safety Goals are evidence-based standards of care established by The Joint Commission’s Patient Safety Advisory Group (PSAG) to improve the safety and quality of care provided to patientsin the United States. They are meant to help accredited organizations address specific areas of concern in regards to patient safety. These goals specify best clinical practice in a number of areas including: correct patient identification, communication among medical providers, the safe use of medications, infection prevention, patient safety risks, the prevention of surgical mistakes, fall prevention, and pressure ulcer prevention, among others. Standards are published for a variety of institutions, including hospitals, home care agencies, behavioral health facilities, long-term care facilities, outpatient surgery centers, and laboratories. While not identical, there is a great deal of overlap in goals among institution types. The National Patient Safety Goals grew out of the Institute of Medicine’s landmark report, “To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System,” ( http://www.iom.edu/Reports/1999/To-Err-is-Human-Building-A-Safer-Health-System.aspx ) which chronicled the prevalence of preventable medical errors in the U.S. healthcare system. To address these concerns, the National Patient Safety Goals emphasize system-wide healthcare problems and processes, and aim to hold organizations accountable for improving patient safety.

What are the goals of patient safety?

Goal 1: Identify patients correctly. Goal 2: Improve effective communication. Goal 3: Improve the safety of high-alert medications. Goal 4: Ensure safe surgery.

What are the 5 P’s of patient safety?

Hourly rounding incorporates behavioral and environmental components2. The focused hourly assessment includes the completion of the evaluation of the’5P’s’: Pain, Potty, Positioning, Possessions and Personal needs.

What are the 5 steps to patient safety?

Overview – Worldwide, 45% of medical errors occur in the operating theatre and nearly half of these are preventable.2 Faced with evidence of avoidable harm, attitudes and practices need to change to promote safer healthcare. Five Steps to Safer Surgery is a surgical safety checklist.

How do nurses maintain patients trust by providing safe and competent care?

College of Nurses Professional Standards – The Professional Standards provide an overall framework for the practice of nursing. In addition to professional standards, the College of Nurses of Ontario provides practice standards for many aspects of the provision of care.

  1. Nurses respect the dignity of patients and treat them as individuals.
  2. Nurses work together to promote patient well-being.
  3. Nurses maintain patients’ trust by providing safe and competent care.
  4. Nurses work respectfully with colleagues to best meet patients’ needs.
  5. Nurses act with integrity to maintain patients’ trust.
  6. Nurses maintain public confidence in the nursing profession.
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The College of Nurses Ethical Standards value client well-being, client choice, privacy and confidentiality, respect for life, maintaining commitments, truthfulness, and fairness. Practical Nurses function in an independent and interdependent environment.

The majority of the time, the practitioner’s involvement at the care recipient’s side is of an independent nature, when direct supervision of an action is not possible. There is an implicit trust by the client that the Practical Nurse is an ethical, moral, and competent person. As students preparing to become health care professionals, it is imperative that your behavior and attitudes reflect the professional, ethical standards that are embraced by your chosen profession.

We believe that a value system incorporating high moral and ethical integrity is of vital importance, and regard the absence of such values as critical and dangerous to practice. We believe integrity to be a quality that includes sound moral principles, sincerity, honesty and self-respect.

  1. The College of Nurses of Ontario Guidelines for Professional Behavior state: “Nurses have a duty to participate in and promote the growth of the profession and to conduct themselves in a manner which is becoming to the profession.” Nurses need to care for one another and respect their colleagues.
  2. They need to work collaboratively with other nurses, trust in the expertise of one another, and refer to others when they do not have the necessary knowledge and expertise themselves.

A nurse needs to:

  • Contribute to positive team functioning and supporting colleagues;
  • Conduct oneself in a way which promotes respect for the profession;
  • Cooperate with regulatory functions.

If a student’s behavior/conduct interferes with the learning process or in any way jeopardizes the safe environment of the classroom or clinical setting, the student will be required to leave the class or clinical session. Knowledge is scaffolded in the program with courses building on each other from semester to semester and by linking of information together between theory, lab and professional practice.

It is therefore an expectation that students have certain level of retained knowledge as they move through the program and they use sound knowledge, skill, and judgement when engaging in practice of skills at clinical. Inappropriate Behavior or unsafe practices may require the withdrawal of the student from the course prior to the end of the course.

If the student is asked to leave by the agency the student will not be permitted to return and consequently, the student will receive a failing grade for the Professional Practice course (see Student Behaviour Policy ).

How do nurses show respect to patients?

Respect for patients – Equally, if not more important, is respect for our patients. All patients deserve to be treated with dignity and an acknowledgment of their value as individuals. One of the most widely cited elements of disrespect mentioned by patients is simply failing to pay attention to their needs, by leaving them unattended or ignored.

  1. Think of how this translates to the way patients are greeted by your front staff, treated in the emergency department, or when they appear lost in the halls.
  2. As Don Berwick stated, “We are guests in our patients’ lives.” As such, we must act accordingly.
  3. This is demonstrated by listening to our patients, asking for their opinion and recognizing the importance of incorporating their personal values and priorities into treatment decisions.

We convey respect by being considerate of patients’ time (e.g., striving to provide timely service and apologizing when we fail to do so). The physical environment that we create for patients is a direct reflection of our respect for them. Our ability to ensure privacy, cleanliness and quiet surroundings speaks volumes.

  1. When we request permission to enter a patient’s room, ask a patient how they would like to be addressed and explain to patients who we are and what we plan to do, this all communicates respect for them as individuals.
  2. Respect is also showing gratitude to our patients who entrust us with their care.
  3. A simple thank you can mean so much.
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At Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, the approach to respecting patients was operationalized. In 2015, the organization extended their existing quality and safety reporting systems to include complaints and grievances from patients and families that seemed to describe a disrespectful experience.

What is patient safety goal #7?

Goal 7: Reduce the risk of health care-associated infections. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) hand hygiene guidelines or the current World Health Organization (WHO) hand hygiene guidelines.

What are 2 National Patient Safety Goals?

National Patient Safety Goals. | PSNet Organizational Policy/Guidelines Citation Text: The Joint Commission. The National Patient Safety Goals (NPSGs) are one of the major methods by which The Joint Commission establishes standards for ensuring patient safety in all health care settings.

  • In order to ensure health care facilities focus on preventing major sources of patient harm, The Joint Commission regularly revises the NPSGs based on their impact, cost, and effectiveness.
  • Major focus areas include promoting surgical safety and preventing, medication errors,, and specific clinical harms such as and pressure ulcers.

The 2023 goals, which include a goal to improve, are now available. Citation Text: The Joint Commission. : National Patient Safety Goals. | PSNet

How are the patient safety goals created?

Each year we gather information about emerging patient safety issues from widely recognized experts and stakeholders. This information is the basis for our National Patient Safety Goals ®, which we tailor for each specific program.

What are the 5 P’s of fall prevention?

3. Hourly rounding (or more frequent and as needed to be individualized to patient) using 5 Ps ( Potty, Pain Assessment, Placements, Positioning and Pumps ).4.

What are the 4 P’s of fall prevention?

Different falls prevention strategies may be needed for each resident. Ideally, the care team, residents, and families will work together to find the strategies that work best for each individual. for another. The 4P’s stand for: Pain, Position, Placement, and Personal Needs.

What is an example of a patient goal?

For example, if the patient’s goal is ‘ being able to walk with my grandchild in the park,’ the action step should describe what the patient wants to start with in order to gradually improve her walking ability: ‘I plan to walk in the park with my granddaughter twice weekly for at least 30 minutes by October 1st.’

What is the role of a nurse leader in promoting patient safety and quality patient care outcomes discuss?

Background – Nurse leaders are essential to manage nursing practices that affects patient safety; therefore, they must create and sustain a sound safety culture in a diverse cultural environment such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE). With healthcare evolving, there is growing attention and focus on patient safety, ultimately requiring nurse leadership practices that follow through on patient safety events and manage nursing actions that affect patient safety.

A diverse healthcare workforce further complicates matters, and nurse leaders (also referred to as nurse managers) face increased challenges in sustaining patient safety (Padgett et al.2017 ). The behavioural safety culture model of Ekenedo defines the specific skills and decisions that nurse leaders must apply in their departments to sustain a sound safety culture (Besnard et al.2018 ; Golda 2013 ).

A nurse leader has many responsibilities, such as instilling a culture of safety; assessing, reducing, mitigating and managing safety risks in a caring environment; maintaining a safe patient allocation based on the acuity and skill mix of the nurses; evaluating team performances; sharing and educating patient safety measures; and managing risky behaviours among nursing staff (Bronkhorst, Tummers & Steijn 2018 ; Edgar 2017 ).

  • The hospital climate (or ‘positive work environment’, used interchangeably) can be described as the ‘perceived and recurring patterns of behaviour, attitudes and feelings that characterise life in the organization’ (Gea-Caballero et al.2021 ).
  • Because nurses spend most of their time in the work environment, facilitating a safe, positive work environment is essential to ensure the safety of patients and staff.

Evidence shows that nurse leaders have a direct impact on the perceived climate based on their commitment to a culture of safety, communication, fostering teamwork, productivity, scheduling and recognition of nurses’ achievements that support patient safety (Farokhzadian, Nayeri & Borhani 2018 ).

It is essential for nurse leaders to understand how their nursing team perceives the hospital climate to proactively address patient safety events in order to promote positive patient outcomes There are numerous positive work environment tools that the nurse leader can use to determine how their nursing team perceives their work environment, and in the UAE many healthcare organisations apply the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators nurse surveys annually (Alsalam et al.2018 ).

Ultimately, this information may provide the nurse leader with supporting information to establish how these factors affect the culture of safety in the unit. A culture of safety was established as the result of a number of events that occurred in the aviation and nuclear industries (Al-Lawati et al.2018 ).

  • However, a culture of safety specifically related to healthcare can be defined in terms of measuring the different dimensions appropriate to clinical settings (Hogden et al.2017).
  • Creating an institutional safety culture is not based on a new set of rules but rather on a philosophy that should be embraced by the healthcare team to prevent harm in the workplace (Hogden et al.2017).
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Healthcare organisations with a positive safety culture are characterised by communications founded on mutual trust, shared perceptions of the importance of safety and confidence in the efficacy of preventive measures (Hodgen et al.2017 ). Jilcha and Kitaw ( 2016 ) and Ma and Rankin () list five components required for a sound culture of safety to be applied in healthcare, namely (1) an informed culture, (2) a flexible culture, (3) a reporting culture, (4) a learning culture and (5) a just culture.

  1. Applying them in practice allows the nurse leader to address all components in a clinical care setting.
  2. According to Reason’s Culture of Safety Framework (Jilcha & Kitaw 2016 ; Ma & Rankin ), a learning culture is vital to enable nurses to practise safely; thus, nurses’ orientation, regular in-service training programmes and unit-specific competency training should be offered.

In creating an environment of learning, nurses are empowered to assess their own learning needs and practise safely (Oliveira et al.2017 ). As technology advances, so does the complexity of systems within healthcare; therefore, various subjective safety indicators are required to determine the nursing teams’ safety performance (Mirrah et al.2020 ).

Currently, there is no benchmarking among the UAE hospitals; thus, quality and services are measured against international hospitals, which do not have the same cultural backgrounds and issues. Healthcare facilities should ultimately benchmark against other facilities in the same country in order to constantly work towards enhanced practices and processes for improved patient safety and patient outcomes.

Patient safety is the reduction of risks associated with injury or harm to a patient to a minimal acceptable level (World Health Organization 2018 ). Pelzang and Hutchinson ( 2018 ) claim many patients are affected by adverse events such as poor documentation practices, falls, insufficient hand hygiene (HH) and hospital-acquired pressure injury (HAPI).

Some experience lasting damage, while others could potentially die. Safety culture practices are not always sustained in hospitals (Alsalam, Bowie & Morrison 2018 ), despite nurses being exposed to various development, planning and education projects on standards of care and safety practices. Although hospitals use nursing-sensitive performance indicators, the variances reported have had a negative impact on patient outcomes (Alsalam et al.2018 ).

On average, in the two hospitals investigated, patient fall rates have increased from 0.1% to 0.4%, HAPI incidences increased from six to eight cases per month, HH compliance was at 85% and the Nursing Admission Assessment (NAA) completed within the specified 24 h was at 90%.

  • Nurse leaders must understand the synergy between the factors in the hospital climate and safety culture on patient safety to identify the impact it has on positive patient outcomes (Churruca et al.2021 ; Willmott & Mould 2018 ).
  • Therefore, describing the specific actions required by nurse leaders to facilitate a safety culture and improve patient outcomes may be advantageous to address cultural diversity among the nursing team, as well as promoting a positive work environment and managing safety factors affecting the safety culture.

The purpose of this study is to describe specific actions required by nurse leaders to enhance the sustainability of a safety culture in hospitals and among a diverse nursing team, ultimately improving patient outcomes.

Which action would be a nursing responsibility to ensure safety while working?

Facilitating the Appropriate and Safe Use of Equipment – The appropriate and safe use of equipment can be facilitated with:

The complete education and training of all users Validated and documented competency to use any and all pieces of equipment by a person qualified to do so Preventive maintenance The removal of all unsafe equipment from service

Which action by a nurse is most important in protecting the safety of patients and staff when using an automated medication dispensing system?

Which action by the nurse is most important in protecting the safety of patients and staff when using an automated medication dispensing system? Notify the pharmacy to determine if the accurate dose is available.