A universal aspiration for all Registered Nurses (RN) and workplace environments is to create a safe atmosphere for both the client and employees. The RN has an obligation to ensure, “a culture of safety by using established occupational health and safety practices, and other safety measures to protect client, self and colleagues from injury or potentially abusive situations” (Saskatchewan Registered Nurses’ Association, 2007, p. 11). This competency guides RN’s to provide and advocate safe practice environments. Thus, the issue this paper will discuss is Occupational Health and Safety (OH&S). The population being focused on is home care, which is, “care provided to patients in their homes to restore their functional capacity, to allow them to manage their care independently, and to enable them to remain safely in the community” (Panasci, 2009, p.190). The writer received consent from the Home Support Team Manager from the Prince Albert Parkland Health Region (PAPHR) who will be referred to as O.S. By conducting an interview in conjunction with O.S, the writer gained insight into the manager’s role, challenges, and ensuring OH&S practices. For the all-inclusive interview refer to Appendix A. This paper will depict the essence of OH&S, the manager and writer’s approaches and strategies to resolving the challenges. Management Challenge The challenge that was the focus of the interview was OH&S in a home care environment and the difficulties associated with the implementation of minimizing occupational hazards. OH&S prevents and protects employees from workplace hazards (Chadwick & Doyle, 2008). The six types of health and safety hazards are biological, chemical, ergonomic, physical, psychosocial, and safety (Chadwick &... ... middle of paper ... ...hem and if they decide not to use them, the manager could give a verbal warning for the first incident and for the second incident, give a written warning. The manager could also use this tactic with rock salt or kitty litter (Fox, 2011). Conclusion The goal of maintaining a safe environment for both the workers and clients in home care is key. This goal is a constant issue in home care; with the most significant hazards indentified are violence and environmental hazards that were addressed. O.S’s management philosophy was par with what literature was explaining. The writer explains how having a constant evaluatory tool may help with maintaining a safe environment for both client and staff. Most importantly, one of the nursing values and ethical responsibilities is, “providing safe, compassionate, competent and ethical care” (Code of Ethics, 2008, p. 8).
Nurses are key components in health care. Their role in today’s healthcare system goes beyond bedside care, making them the last line of defense to prevent negative patient outcomes (Sherwood & Zomorodi, 2014). As part of the interdisciplinary team, nurses have the responsibility to provide the safest care while maintaining quality. In order to meet this two healthcare system demands, the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) project defined six competencies to be used as a framework for future and current nurses (Sherwood & Zomorodi, 2014). These competencies cover all areas of nursing practice: patient-centered care, teamwork and collaboration, evidence-based practice, quality
The nurse must be committed to integrating these safety practices in her care for the clients. Critical thinking skills are also essential. The use of critical thinking enables the nurse to identify any current or potential problems that might jeopardize the patient safety. In addition, the nurse must also have the resources and supplies available to deliver safe care. For example, the nurse used the family assessment questionnaire provided to her to do an assessment on the safety of the home environment. She also needed supplies like hand sanitizer and disinfectant
In health care, safety does not only pertain to the patient, but to all of the staff as well. Although this is important, it is critical that nurses are safe, since they usually interact with the patients the most. If a nurse does not follow correct safety and health practices, they may cause harm to the patient, which may end up in a lawsuit if the damage is bad enough. If safety measures are followed and nothing wrong happens, this saves the facility money and it could possibly gain money if the patients refer the facility to other potential customers. Every facility should have a policy pertaining to safety measures, and it should be reviewed as needed. One thing that nurses will need to know is how to properly use lifts and
...huge responsibilities to the patient’s that the nurse cares for. These responsibilities require the nurse to maintain the safest environment possible for the patient. To do that the nurse must be able to meet the character requirements written about in this paper. Ethics, integrity, accountability, responsibility, and boundaries, keeps everyone in a safe environment. Without these attributes the door opens for questionable behaviors to occur inside of the hospital or other environments. Once the behaviors are allowed to occur, then the standards that nurse’s standby will diminish. Standards such as these do not just belong in the clinical setting. These are standards that everyone should live by in their day to day life. The Board of Nursing topics discussed here, are the foundation for the moral fiber that each person should weave within into their lives.
Safety is focused on reducing the chance of harm to staff and patients. The 2016 National Patient Safety Goals for Hospitals includes criteria such as using two forms of identification when caring for a patient to ensure the right patient is being treated, proper hand washing techniques to prevent nosocomial infections and reporting critical information promptly (Joint Commission, 2015). It is important that nurses follow standards and protocols intending to patients to decrease adverse
Nursing Home Abuse With over 1.5 million elderly and dependent adults now living in nursing homes throughout the country, abuse and neglect has become a widespread problem. Even though some nursing homes provide good care, many are subjecting helpless residents to needless suffering and death. Most residents in nursing homes are dependent on the staff for most or all their needs such as food, water, medicine, toileting, grooming- almost all their daily care. Unfortunately, many residents in nursing homes today are starved, dehydrated, over-medicated, and suffer painful pressure sores. They are often isolated, ignored, and deprived of social contact and stimulation.
Because nurses are the largest group of healthcare providers, they are in the best position to improve patient safety and quality of care. While teaching and preparing students to become nurses, nurse educators have a very important role in helping to develop the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of upcoming nurses related to patient safety. Healthcare professionals, such as nurses, are highly skilled and well educated, but the healthcare system continues to be disrupted by quality and safety issues.
The Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN’s) goal is to prepare future nurses with the knowledge, skills, and attitudes (KSAs) that are needed to continuously improve the quality and safety of the healthcare systems within which they work. QSEN focuses on six main competencies; patient-centered care, teamwork and collaboration, evidence-based practice, quality improvement, safety, and informatics. As we have learned in earlier classes these competencies and their KSAs offer a base to help us and other nurses as we continue our education and become RNs. As we will learn in this class these KSAs go hand in hand with health assessment.
Patient safety is a large concern for practices, nurses and doctors. There are many tasks and precautions that can be taken to prevent accidents in the work place, whether it involves patients or not. Florence Nightingale once said “The very first canon of nursing, the first and last thing on which a nurse’s attention must be fixed is to keep the air within as pure as the air without”. This quote is argued to be an analogy for keeping the patient safe and to return them to the same condition as before they fell ill. Patient safety is one of many top priorities in a nurse’s creed, right next to caring for the patient and returning them to proper health. It is the nurse’s responsibility to keep the patient as comfortable as possible. This has
Patient’s safety will be compromised because increase of patient to nurse ratio will lead to mistakes in delivering quality care. In 2007, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) conducted a metanalysis and found that “shortage of registered nurses, in combination with increased workload, poses a potential threat to the quality of care… increases in registered nurse staffing was associated with a reduction in hospital-related mortality and failure to rescue as well as reduced length of stay.” Intense workload, stress, and dissatisfaction in one’s profession can lead to health problems. Researchers found that maintaining and improving a healthy work environment will facilitate safety, quality healthcare and promote a desirable professional avenue.
Patient safety is always the primary goal any hospital, nursing unit, and health care team. As the main caregiver, a nurse’s responsibility is to keep the patient safe, and free from injuries while the patient is hospitalized (Smith, 2012). The definition of nursing competency lack a direct universal definition, and technique and ways nursing supervisor and managers can evaluate patient care that was provided by a novice nurses (Smith, 2012). As of now, there is not an exact avenue that can help a novice or new graduate nurses to transition into a competent nurse so that patient care is not compromised (Smith, 2012). The author has chosen the topic of Roger’s nurse competency because nurse competency has been the greatest challenges
Keeping patients safe is essential in today’s health care system, but patient safety events that violate that safety are increasing each year. It was only recently, that the focus on patient safety was reinforced by a report prepared by Institute of medicine (IOM) entitled ” To err is human, building a safer health system”(Wakefield & Iliffe,2002).This report found that approx-imately 44,000 to 98,000 deaths occur each year due to medical errors and that the majority was preventable. Deaths due to medical errors exceed deaths due to many other causes such as like HIV infections, breast cancer and even traffic accidents (Wakefield & Iliffe, 2002). After this IOM reports, President Clinton established quality interagency coordination task force with the help of government agencies. These government agencies are responsible for making health pol-icies regarding patient safety to which every HCO must follow (Schulman & Kim, 2000).
The Professional Standards of The College of Registered Nurses of British Columbia,(CRNBC) include the following four key areas: Professional responsibility and accountability, Knowledge-Based Practice,Client-Focused Provision of Service and Ethical Practice(p,2). Each of these standards are outlined well within the CRNBC professional standards, and need to be followed by each registered nurse. If these standards of care are not being met then one must evaluate their own practice or it could need to be reported to CRNBC. This paper will explore three standards of practice and their importance, including: Challenges, Professionalism and Knowledge Based-Practice. These reflect significantly on registered nurses (RN) in Canada, and how they play their role as nurses professionally.
Historically, the nursing profession has been actively involved in the health promotion and disease prevention among the general public. However, while caring for others, nurses often neglect their personal safety, which ultimately results in the high level of work-related injuries. Failure to timely address risk factors for nursing can have dire consequences for patient outcomes, since it is often associated with increased medication errors and patient falls, poor quality of care, and permanent disability of the nursing staff (Stokowski, 2014).
The nursing profession is constantly in a state of change becoming more complex over time. Registered nurses work to prevent disease, promote health and help patients cope. They develop and manage nursing care plans, instruct proper outpatient care, and help improve and maintain health within their community. They are educators of health governed by state laws. Registered nurses can work in many different settings which determine their daily job duties. Depending on their level of training a RN could work with geriatrics, in intensive care units, as an educator, as clinical study observers, a midwife, oncology, or palliative care. Hospital nurses make up the majority of the RN group. They work as staff nurses who carryout medical regimens and provide bedside care. Most registered nurses work in well-lighted comfortable facilities, work nights, weekends, and holidays, and spend a considerable amount of time on their feet. They have to be available at a moment’s notice. Nursing also has its hazards all employees of care facilities are at risk for infectious disease, radiation poisoning, back injuries, shocks from electrical equipment, and hazards posed by compressed gas. Nurses are the link between doctors and patients.