The documentary “Chasing Zero” reflects on the importance of quality care and patient safety. From the video, a child presents with jaundice, but the hospital fails to recognize immediate treatment. As a result, the child develops further complications such Kernicterus, which results in brain damage from jaundice (Quality and Safety Education for Nurses, 2014). Unfortunately, there were many devastating instances such as this, which could have been greatly prevented. In response to these tragic events, activists have introduced many best-practice approaches to minimize these occurrences. One instance is a new cleaning checklist developed from culture methods from other industries to reduce the risk of Staphylococcal infections. Another best-practice approach is the invention of a Pyxis medication dispensing unit, which is a form of medication management that includes barcode technology. This provides another safety check for the nurse as it implements the five rights of medication administration, and minimalizes any further medication errors. As the years have passed, technology plays a significant factor in improving patient safety. For instance, infusion pumps have prominently been enhanced to …show more content…
Patient safety experts have demonstrated that “patient safety increases when teamwork and collaboration skills are taught and empowered; when teamwork and collaboration are not present, medical errors will result” (Creasia & Friberg, 201, p. 348). As a nurse, it is imperative to collaborate with other interdisciplinary members in health care and also strive to research and implement evidence-based practices. Evidence-based practice is necessary to “ensure the highest quality of cost-effective care and the best patient outcomes” (Fineout-Overholt, 2011, para. 16). With a collaborative and innovative attitude on safe health care practices, an increase in patient safety and effectiveness of care will
Develop the concept/idea/issue you selected from your practice area into a relevant question This paper will evaluate and address issues surrounding never event in healthcare. In this regard, the guiding question for this analysis is, ‘How can never events be prevented in acute healthcare institutions?’ Describe the question According to Wilson and Giddens (2014), never events are adverse situations and serious medical errors that a patient should never experience.
Kaiser Permanente (KP) was founded in 1945 at the height of the Great Depression (Kaiser Permanente, 2017a). Since their humble beginnings KP has strived to provide the best care possible for their patients and improve on health for their members. Kaiser has grown from a small hospital, to a large foundation by making appropriate changes and using strategic planning to ensure members receive the health care they need in terms of quality and safety. One method of strategic planning KP uses is appreciative inquiry, a method and philosophy that identifies when the facility functions at its best and builds from those situations to create a vision of the future and work towards that vision (McNamara, n.d).
Objective One During my clinical day three, I demonstrated entry-level competence in professional nursing practice in caring for patients with multiple and/or complex unmet human needs. I addressed safety needs, safety in medication administration, effective communication, and surveillance for my patients. First, I addressed safety needs my ensuring the appropriate safety measures were implemented for the patients. Some of the safety measures included, wearing non-skid socks, wearing a yellow armband which indicated fall risk, keeping the bed in lowest position, two side rails up, bed locked, and the call light within reach.
Each year, the goals are analyzed and if necessary, updated. The 2016 National Patient Safety Goals aim to: 1) Improve the accuracy of patient and resident identification; 2) Improve the effective communication of caregivers; 3) Improve the safety of medication use; 4) Improve the safety of clinical alarm systems; 5) Reduce the risk of health care associated infections; 6) Organize identification of safety risks evident in patient populations; and 7) Set universal protocol for preventing wrong site/procedure/person surgeries (TJC, 2016). These safety goals are mandated so that medical errors are reduced and patients are given the best quality care possible. Some of the steps nurses can take in association with these goals include: using at least two patient identifiers to ensure correct patient treatment and reduce patient misidentification; making timely reports of critical test and diagnostic results; maintaining accurate patient medication information, and labeling all medications and containers removed from original containers; quickly responding to medical equipment alarms, and maintaining their upkeep; following hand hygiene guidelines, and using evidence-based practices to prevent infections due to multi drug-resistant organisms, surgical sites, or indwelling catheters; identifying patients at risk for suicide; and ensuring that sites are correctly marked for surgery through marking the procedure site and undergoing a verification process (Cherry & Jacobs,
In order for the future of health care to change, changes must begin at the top with stakeholders, the hierarchy and nursing management, nurses as leaders within their organizations. According to Disch J. (2008), nurses as leaders within their organizations need to also step forward, CNEs have the background, perspective, and platform to help their organizations seriously tackle safety issues that jeopardize patient care and that face nurses and their colleagues daily, and are the essential building blocks of all health systems--and
- Safety provi¬sions are interpreted to protect patients from illnesses caused in the course of medical treatment as well as to provide hygienic and injury-free experience in the health care setting. Special provisions exist for safety in pharmaceuticals, blood supply, infectious disease treatment and diagnostics, and mental health services, among others. Ethical codes for doctors, nurses, and other health care workers contain provisions applicable to the patients’ right to safety. Medical errors and other actions that fail to meet safety standards can carry civil, criminal and administrative penalties
There is much overlap when discussing quality and safety in nursing, but it is important to realize that both have their own skills and knowledge essential to the competency. Quality is measuring the rendering of a specific process or action and comparing the data to benchmarks. If the standards are not met then quality improvements are implemented in the hopes of meeting those standards. Were safety is the proactive action of preventing mistakes from occurring, such as knowing a patient is at risk for following and taking precautions such as assisting the patient during ambulation’s. Safety is looking at the environment around you for potential areas of hazard and using critical thinking to make changes for the better of you, co-workers, and patients (Sherwood,
Fed Up is a documentary made in 2014 that is based on the issues caused by the American food industry. Fed Up, uncovers America’s true secrets about the food people consume every day. More specifically, it reveals the affect sugar has on people’s bodies. As a result, the amount of sugar in food, the bodies consent of glucose, and the satisfying taste it brings, too much sugar could cause certain sicknesses causing the body to not work the way it supposed to. To start off, the amount of sugar put in America’s food is predominately high.
QSEN Competencies allow nurses to improve the safety and quality of existing healthcare institutions by continually understanding the KSAs – knowledge, skills, and attitudes. These competencies include patient-centered care, teamwork and collaboration, evidence-based practice (EBP), quality improvement (QI), safety, and informatics. The following paper discusses the above competencies and evaluates how systems thinking affects the quality and safety of the regulators and accreditors. According to Case Western Reserve University (n.d.), nurses should integrate patient-centered care values by communicating sensibly and respectfully while addressing patients' needs to other staff members.
The concern for safety has become a bigger and more important issue, and these two departments are forming a relationship. Although it has been the tradition for these two departments to work separately, they both have a common goal, to oversee the safety and excellence in healthcare organizations. Some smaller organizations have always had the same person control quality and risk and remained successful. These days, we are seeing a lot more collaborations, goal sharing, ad idea exchanging among these two groups (Perry, 2007). Risk management is critical to every organization.
These protocols are to be met to provide patient comfort and avoid disaster. The Death
By installing a pneumatic delivery system, the hospital system could have the licensed caregivers focus more time on providing excellent care to our patients. There are some noted concerns that using a pneumatic tube system for laboratory specimen delivery may increase the risk of hemolysis in a blood sample (Lima-Oliveira et al., 2014). However, this risk of hemolysis does not pose a substantial harm to patients and is clinically insignificant in the vast majority of cases. This is particularly true in the case of the Alvin C. York Medical Center as the units that would utilize the pneumatic tube system are units that do not serve patients with acute medical conditions. The delay that currently exists due to the extended length of time it takes to transport a specimen from one side of the campus to the other is likely more of a detriment to patient care as the risk of hemolysis from rapid
Through the learning from week 1 and week 2, I have learnt that the most frequent adverse event in health-care delivery is health care-associated infections. It is essential for us to follow the infection control practices that both patients and us are at a risk of being infected. Standard Precautions involve the use of safe work practices and protective barriers, for example, the use of personal protective equipment(PPE). At first, I think Standard Precautions are very easy. Everyone knows PPE can protect us from infections and hand hygiene is important throughout the process.
In the leadership in care delivery course, we were assigned to a hospital to perform clinical hours and provide care to four patients. Additionally, the purpose of this paper is to explain and provide examples on how our patient care included the concepts of Quality and Safety Education for Nursing (QSEN) competencies, delegation, handoff reporting, and a reflection of the clinical experience. Quality and Safety Education for Nursing (QSEN) Competencies QSEN consists of six competencies: patient centered care, quality improvement, teamwork and collaboration, safety, informatics, and evidence based practice. To provide patient-centered care, I had to educate the patient when administering medications on why the patient was taking the medication and side effects. Care had to be individualized with each patient and it included providing respect with his or her decisions in their care.
Lewis, Stephens, and Ciak (2016) confirmed that the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) initiative was developed to determine competencies for nursing students based upon Institute of Medicine (IOM) recommendations with the main goal of QSEN is to establish a cultural change toward quality and safety. According to QSEN (2014), addresses the challenge of preparing future nurses with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs) are essential components of improving the quality and safety of the healthcare systems. Furthermore, the QSEN six competencies for nursing that targets the KSA to guarantee future graduates to develop competencies in patient-centered care, teamwork and collaboration, evidence-based practice, quality improvement,