Kellie Jacobs Professor Susan Beam English 051: English Essentials 18 November 2017 Near-Misses in Hospitals Do you think us as patients should feel safe when go to hospitals, but how can we feel safe when there are nurses that keep making mistakes? Near-Misses are unsafe for the patients that are presented to them, If hospitals regulate how many near-misses and who are being less careful they will start to take more responsibility in what they are doing at work and the methods they are working on to fix all the near-misses. People do learn from their mistakes but hospitals should regulate the amount of near-misses that happen and should have consequences for the nurses that cause the near-miss. In the article
During the 1980’s and 90’s there were many studies done that showed that medical errors were occurring in inpatient and outpatient settings at a very high rate. Computer Provider Order Entry (CPOE) systems were designed to reduce or eliminate mistakes made by using hand written orders. The CPOE system allows users to directly enter their orders into the system on computers which are then sent directly to the healthcare providers that will be implementing the orders. Previously orders were placed by writing on order sheets on patient charts. This was sometimes done by the doctor or by a nurse acting on behalf of the doctor. Order sheets were then signed by the doctor and then the information was input into the patient’s record. This left room for error due to misreading bad handwriting, confusing medications with similar names, etc.
In the essay “When Doctors Make Mistakes” written by Atul Gawande, he writes a first-hand account of mistakes made by himself and his colleagues. The essay is divided into five parts, each named to the narrative and emotions of the story he would tell. In each story he tells, he uses such vivid language that we as readers feel as if we are one of his colleagues. Each section has its own importance to the whole point he was trying to get across, ““All doctors make terrible mistakes” (657).
Safety competency is essential for high-quality care in the medical field. Nurses play an important role in setting the bar for quality healthcare services through patient safety mediation and strategies. The QSEN definition of safety is that it “minimizes risk of harm to patients and providers through both system effectiveness and individual performance.” This papers primary purpose is to review and better understand the importance of safety knowledge, skills, and attitude within nursing education, nursing practice, and nursing research. It will provide essential information that links health care quality to overall patient safety.
According to an article in Health Services Research, safety is one of the main reasons that HCAHPS/Press Ganey surveys patients after their hospital stays (Isaac, Zaslavsky, Cleary & Landon, 2010). This positive aspect brought about by HCAHPS/Press Ganey surveys is the re-focus of patient safety, something that should be a top priority and nursing responsibility of all patient care. A direct example of this focus is that if a patient experiences a serious safety event or is harmed by a medical error, his or her overall experience will be negatively impacted. (Isaac et.al., 2010). Cohen (2015) predicts that if the focus of healthcare shifts to the delivery of safe, compassionate, high-quality care, the patient experience and satisfaction with their overall care is likely to rise. There is also evidence that increased patient satisfaction is important for improving patient adherence. How patients perceive the receptiveness of the unit’s hospital staff likely reflects the hospital 's safety culture thus promoting adherence to treatment guidelines (Isaac, Zaslavsky, Cleary & Landon, 2010). Patients are more likely to continue suggested healthy habits and be compliant with their medication if they are satisfied with their healthcare practitioners. Spence & Fida (2015) correlated in their article the relationship between a nurse 's job satisfaction, job retention, and perceived
The evidenced based problem that was identified for this research assignment, was that nurses were causing multiple medication errors in a clinical and practice setting. According to the authors Wolf, Hicks, and Serembus (2006), a medication error is defined as any preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or patient harm while the medication is in the control of the health care professional, patient, or consumer. It is very important for experienced nurses and nursing professors to identify medication errors to prevent them from harming the patient. Some of the errors that were identified were not reported because registered nurses didn’t want their peers to think they were irresponsible (Unver, Tastan, & Akbayrak, 2012). Nurse shaming did not help increase positive outcomes of reporting errors among nursing students and registered nurses (Harding & Petrick, 2008). When medication errors were reported they were not being reported properly, and the consequences for improper reporting were not taken seriously.
Furthermore, there should be enough trust between the nurses and physicians where they can easily put aside their egos and ask for a second opinion when they have any doubts concerning a patient's safety. This was clearly exemplified when the nursing staff attending to Lewis Blackman failed to contact the physician when various side effects arose; instead they tailored the signs to fit the expected side effects. Even after Blackman’s health was deteriorating, the nurses remained in their “tribes” and never once broke out of it to ask for help. The entire hospital was built on strong culture of remaining in their tribes instead of having goals oriented towards patients care and safety.
Patient safety should be the highest priority when it comes to health care, so why wouldn't the administrators reduce the ratio of nurse to patients to provide maximum patient care? Nurses that have a higher workload of patients are probably more prone to commit a medication error because they may not have the time to do the five checks of medication administration: the right drug, the right dose, the right route, the right time, and the right patient.
Patient safety one of the driving forces of healthcare. Patient safety is defined as, “ the absence of preventable harm to a patient during the process of healthcare or as the prevention of errors and adverse events caused by the provision of healthcare rather than the patient’s underlying disease process. (Kangasniemi, Vaismoradi, Jasper, &Turunen, 2013)”. It was just as important in the past as it is day. Our healthcare field continues to strive to make improvement toward safer care for patients across the country.
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.
The rate of errors and situations are seen as chances for improvement. A great degree of preventable adversative events and medical faults happen. They cause injury to patients and their loved ones. Events are possibly able to occur in all types of settings. Innovations and strategies have been created to identify hazards to progress patient and staff safety. Nurses are dominant to providing an atmosphere and values of safety. As an outcome, nurses are becoming safety leaders in the healthcare environment(Utrich&Kear,
Patients Safety is the most crucial about healthcare sector around the world. It is defined as ‘the prevention of patients harm’ (Kohn et al. 2000). Even thou patient safety is shared among organization members, Nurses play a key role, as they are liable for direct and continuous patients care. Nurses should be capable of recognizing the risk of patients and address it to the other multi disciplinary on time.
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
It is shocking to know that every year 98000 patients die from medical errors that can be prevented(Kohn, L. T., Corrigan, J. M., & Donaldson, M. S. (Eds.), 2000). Medical errors are not a new issue in our healthcare system; these have been around for a long time. Hospitals have been trying to improve quality care and patients safety by implementing different strategies to prevent and reduce medical errors for past thirty years. Medical errors are the third leading cause of death after heart disease and cancer in America (Allen, 2013). In addition medical errors are costing our healthcare system an estimated $735 billion to $980 billion (Andel, Davidow, Hollander, & Moreno, 2012).
“Nursing Accidents Unleash Silent Killers”, according to the article titled “A Wake-up Call” (Marilyn S. Fetter 2011). Mistakes or errors implemented by nurses nationwide not only kill, but injure thousands. This perception of practicing nurses continuously causing errors and mistakes can be changed and something can be done about it. However, rare cases of nursing malpractice are still on the rise. Malpractice is a serious case in which it can be avoided completely by a skilled nurse who follows standards and safety precautions to accurately and correctly care for each and every patient.
Safety is a primary concern in the health care environment, but there are still many preventable errors that occur. In fact, a study from ProPublica in 2013 found that between 210,000 and 440,000 patients each year suffer preventable harm in the hospital (Allen, 2013). Safety in the healthcare environment is not only keeping the patient safe, but also the employee. If a nurse does not follow procedure, they could bring harm to themselves, the patient, or both. Although it seems like such a simple topic with a simple solution, there are several components to what safety really entails. Health care professionals must always be cautious to prevent any mishaps to their patients, especially when using machines or lifting objects, as it has a higher