Healthcare organizations are committed to providing clients with quality service and experience while promoting safety, health, and healing. Nurses have the biggest impact in providing safe client care and are known for their commitment in improving or increasing client health. However, this ethical commitment may not always be met due to breakdowns in healthcare delivery. Deviations such as adoption of unsafe practices or behaviors can lead to sentinel events. Any disconnects or disruptions can be a detriment to client care. This paper will present recent cases of witnessed breakdowns of facility protocols and adoptions of unsafe nursing practices, discuss its relevance to education, and how it has affected my personal perspective on the …show more content…
Strategies must touch upon all aspects of a complex work environment. According to Roux and Halstead (2009), some characteristics of an effective client safety culture consists of acknowledging human limitations, avoiding oversimplification of near miss or sentinel events, support from management and leadership in non-punitive problem solving approach in investigations, an interdisciplinary approach to collaboration which includes front line staff to enhance communication and reporting of concerns and errors, and training on intended changes prior to its development and implementation (p. …show more content…
As we observe various practice styles, our commitment to protect client rights is constantly challenged. While I am grateful for the learning opportunity, I strive to maintain my ethical integrity and resist the urge to accommodate unsafe practices. When faced with potentially harmful practices, I try to advocate for my clients by being mindful and respectful in how I remind my preceptors of safe nursing practices. As future nurses, we must recognize barriers to patient safety and learn to address these challenges in a safe and productive manner using appropriate channels. Understanding that workarounds or sentinel events are often caused by multifactorial breakdowns in system processes, nurses must be innovative and proactive in finding ways to improve client safety. We must keep abreast of developments in evidence based practice and advancements in technology. The following are strategies I’ve considered to address time and staffing constraints. I’m committed to learning the hospital’s electronic medical record system to maximize available functionality to efficiently and effectively complete documentation. I’ve considered participating in nurse workgroups to revisit workflows and identify possible implementation of lean processes. Nurses can collaborate and coordinate with fellow staff such as LVN’s or care partners to
Nurses are central to patient care and patient safety in hospitals. Their ability to speak up and be heard greatly impacts their own work satisfaction and patient outcomes. Open communication should have been encouraged within the healthcare team caring for Tyrell. Open communication cultures lead to better patient care, improved outcomes, and better staff satisfaction (Okuyama, 2014). Promoting autonomy for all members of the healthcare team, including the patient and his parents, may have caused the outcome to have been completely different. A focus on what is best for the patient rather than on risks clinicians may face when speaking up about potential patient harm is needed to achieve safe care in everyday clinical practice (Okuyama,
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
This is directly related to my nursing major and current practice as an RN. I have a personal interest in making sure I am practicing in a way that is safe for my patients. What exactly is the problem? The problem, as defined in my argument research paper, is that to cut costs, hospitals have been steadily increasing the number of patients nurses must care for. In many areas, it's not uncommon for one nurse to have to assess, give medications to, and manage the care of as many as 12 patients.
The nursing profession is a profession where people put their trust in you to provide care that is not only effective, ethical, and moral, but safe. Not all health situations are simple or by the book. Not all hospitals have the same nurse-patient ratios, equipment, supplies, or support available, but all nurses have “the professional obligation to raise concerns regarding any patient assignment that puts patients or themselves at risk for harm” (ANA, 2009). When arriving at work for a shift, nurses must ensure that the assignment is safe for not only the patients, but also for themselves. There are times when this is not the situation. In these cases, the nurse has the right to invoke Safe Harbor, because according the ANA, nurses also “have the professional right to accept, reject or object in writing to any patient assignment that puts patient or themselves at serious risk for harm” (ANA, 2009).
Use professional standards and code of ethics to provide competent nursing care. It is "the ethical values of nurses and of nurses' commitments to persons with health-care needs and persons receiving care" (CNA, 2017, p.2). This is done by providing safe, competent care. By being accountable for your own actions such as properly making corrections to a care plan. I learned a lot about this in week 4 in lab, where we were practicing transferring a client. We were providing safe care as we were practicing. Promoting safe transferring of clients will reduce and prevent the risks of falls and injuries for the nurse and client. Being accountable for your actions and accepting where you went wrong will further develop safe nursing care, and self-awareness.
The purpose of this paper is to distinguish, outline, and evaluate the affects that workarounds have on patient safety and quality. According to Alexander, Frith, and Hoy (2015), a workaround is defined as when a problems arise within the workflow and a worker uses an unauthorized way around the health information technology system. This being said, workarounds are present in the hustle and bustle of the stressful hospital workflow, and in return can potentially lead to negative consequences. Therefore, it is essential for health care professionals to recognize the workaround, analyze their workflow, and then develop possible solutions.
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 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
In the past two decades, there has been a push for appropriate staff to client ratios. However, measuring client needs and nursing efforts have been around since 1922 (Lewinski-Corwin, 1922, pp. 603-606). The earliest recorded effort was by the New York Academy of Medicine. Superintendents and nurses from ten training schools documented the time spent providing bedside care. From complied information, the researchers revealed each client required an average of five hours and four minutes of care in a 24-hour period. From these observations, they evaluated staffing issues in New York City. At that time, none of the hospitals were sufficiently staffed (Lewinski-Corwin, 1922, pp. 603-606).
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.
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.
With patient safety always being the number one priority FTR is the worst case scenario for the hospitalized patient. In an article titled “Failure to Rescue: The Nurse’s Impact” from the Medsurg Nursing Journal author Garvey explains ways FTR can occur “including organizational failure, provider lack of knowledge and failure to realize clinical injury, lack of supervision, and failure to get advice.” Nurses are problem solvers by nature, they heal the sick and help save lives. FTR is a tragic experience for everyone involved. The recent surge in this happening across the country has given FTR cases widespread media coverage. Hospitals are trying to figure out what the root cause is and how they can be prevented. Fortunately, with the advancement of technology and extensive research many hospitals have developed action plans and procedures to help prevent the early warning signs from being
Nurses continually strive to bring holistic, efficient, and safe care to their patients. However, if the safety and well-being of the nurses are threatened or compromised, it is difficult for nurses to work effectively and efficiently. Therefore, the position of the American Nurses Association (ANA) advocate that every nursing professional have the right to work in a healthy work environment free of abusive behavior such as bullying, hostility, lateral abuse and violence, sexual harassment, intimidation, abuse of authority and position and reprisal for speaking out against abuses (American Nurses Association, 2012).
Advocacy in action paper is to examine various issues in nursing staffing in the hospital and the impact of this issue on the patient’s care and patient satisfaction. Every nurse role and mission is to take care of a patient and advocate for a safe and healthy work environment. It is very important for all nurses to work together, successfully advocate for nurses and the profession to achieve a safer work environment. My role in this paper is to advocate for improvement, practicing safe in the hospital to improve patient satisfaction and reduction in nurse burnout.
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,