Reasons For Choosing Patient Safety

Providing high quality and safe healthcare has been a policy objective of nations globally for more than a decade. Despite some efforts to improve patient health, most patients continue to suffer avoidable harm and standard care.  As a registered nurse, it is my duty to ensure that the patients are safe at all times. Quality of care is essential since it helps the nurses to make sure that the patients are protected from any harm. I want to enhance patient safety since individuals will have an opportunity to practice a healthy lifestyle. It is important to recognize that knowledge in regards to health and training is necessary for patient safety.

It is crucial to establish a sense of urgency since the patients need high-quality care to enhance the quality of life. It is important to encourage other health practitioners to get out of their comfort zones and work together to ensure the safety of the patient ( Wodchis, Dixon, Anderson and Goodwin 2015, pp. 1-15 ). In addition, many managers and leaders make critical mistakes like declaring victory hence low momentum in making an effort to transform patient safety. Individuals need to identify and understand the stages of change and understand the pitfalls at every stage of transformation since it boosts the chances of effective conversion (Kotter, 2007). Creating a vision and communicating the vision helps in developing strategies for realizing the vision teaching new behaviors that can assist in achieving my objective of improving patient safety ( West,  Lyubovnikova,  Eckert and Denis, 2014, pp. 240-260).  Empowering others to act on the vision encourages risk-taking ideas, activities, and actions.

I chose patient safety because all individuals are entitled to quality healthcare services. Many patient safety practices like use of stimulators and crew resource management have been seen as possible strategies to avoid patient safety errors and enhance the health care process. There are types of errors can occur across the spectrum of health experts and the environment. The causes can be identified in the following terms: a potential failure which means that practitioners are not involved in decision making that affect the policy of the organization and allocation of resources (Weberg  2012, pp. 268-277). There is also active failure which involves contact with the patient directly. In addition, there is an organizational system failure that affects indirect failures involving the management, corporate culture, procedures, knowledge transfer, and external procedures. Supporting the culture of safety so that the frequent error issue and harm can be corrected (Swartling and Poksinska  2013, pp. 81-94).  The culture of safety’s core values and actions show that there is a commitment to emphasize the safety of the patient over competing objectives. Besides, good communication with the patients and their families by observing if there is something unsafe that will endanger the patient is also essential in enhancing the safety of the patient.

Alternatives, Desired State And Evidence

I will make sure that I meet the nurse leader to ensure that the problems are sorted early enough to ensure that proper assistance is offered (Serrano 2010, pp. 1-4). Furthermore, performing basic care and following checklists since simple things like providing oral care and turning the patients is always vital and should not be skipped. Moreover, engaging the patients by asking about their goals and also listening to their questions about the care that they are given is essential since it will help them to open up and explain their issues.  This enables the patients to open up to the nurses and share their experiences all the time. It will also progress the relationship between the patient and the nurses in the healthcare facility.  The hospital management must ensure that there is democratic power to ensure that the practitioners work together to enhance patient safety. This will encourage personal excellence as the nurses will focus on the safety of the patients rather than their interests.

Nursing has been concerned with patient safety quality improvement in healthcare safety. In the past, nurses have been viewed as being responsible for the safety of the patient in narrow aspects like avoiding medical errors and preventing patient falls (Luxford, Safran, and Delbanco, 2011, pp. 510-515 ).  The dimensions of this safety remain vital within the nursing purview, the breadth, and depth of patient safety. The critical contribution of nursing to patient safety in any context is the ability to coordinate and integrate the various aspects of quality within the care directly provided by nursing, and across the attention given by others in the setting (   Thom et al. 2016, pp.819-822 ). Nurses have a positive culture which is being empathetic, supportive, transparency and mutual respect with non-hierarchical climate. Relationships between patients and nurses are valued which shows that there is a culture of improvement.

Nurses are required to work together to achieve team goals, and also they must also participate in decision making. They are caring individuals who put patients at the heart of everything that they do (   Baker, Salas, Battles and King 2016, pp. 212-225 ). They also have the opportunity to nurture the wellbeing of the whole person, respecting the patient’s physical, emotional and spiritual needs. Nurses also make sure that the patients are safe by ensuring time for training and development.   It is essential for the nurses to use data and evidence to improve continuously ( Dipboye, 2016). A positive attitude is also important since it enables the nurses to ensure that all the staff takes responsibility for the hospital as services and reputation. They are encouraged to have the confidence to challenge and responding positively when they are questioned (Jex, 2014). This is important for them since that patient will feel safe and they will also respect the decisions that the nurses make in regards to their health issues.

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Factors To Consider In Addressing The Issue

The leadership style is essential in ensuring patient safety. The hospital’s management must always ensure that all health practitioners give their thoughts on the vision and mission in regards to patient safety (Braithwaite, Wears and Hollnagel 2015, pp.418-420). Professional domain reflects on attributes like values, meaning, autonomy and purpose. In addition, professional loyalty is placed before the organizational improvement, proposing professional autonomy draws on loyalty to the patients (Taylor, Parekh, Estrada, Schleyer, and Sharpe 2014, pp.214-218). There is a need to engage clinicians and in organizational change hence avoiding the dominant clinician versus management paradigm. This will enable them to work with each other in ensuring that the patient is safe.

Healthcare needs to rediscover their purpose and be loyal to their patients.  The purpose of health care is to provide quality services to the community (McFadden, Stock and Gowen  2015, pp.24-34). Also, the working conditions of the health practitioners must be created in a way that is favorable so that they can provide quality care to the patient. Well-structured teams must be considered as well since teamwork is helpful in maintaining the safety of the patient     (Singh and Sittig 2016, pp.226-232.). They work hand in hand in providing solutions to the current problems threatening the patients’ safety. Furthermore, openness and honesty is the key element in ensuring patient safety (Vaismoradi, Jordan and Kangasniemi 2015, pp.627-63 ). Health practitioners must be open minded and create an honest relationship with the patient so that they can get the care that they need.

In conclusion, quality of care is essential since it helps the nurses to make sure that the patients are protected. Proper leadership and management ensure that solutions are given to the problems regarding patient safety.

References

Baker, D.P., Salas, E., Battles, J.B. and King, H.B., 2016. The relation between teamwork and patient safety. In Handbook of human factors and ergonomics in health care and patient safety (pp. 212-225). CRC Press.

Braithwaite, J., Wears, R.L. and Hollnagel, E., 2015. Resilient health care: turning patient safety on its head. International Journal for Quality in Health Care, 27(5), pp.418-420.

Dipboye, R., 2016. Exploring industrial & organizational psychology: Work & organizational behavior.

Jex, S.M., 2014. Organizational psychology. Wiley.

Kotter, J.P., 2007. FROM THE HARVARD BUSINESS REVIEW OnPoint – leading change. Available at: https://camgraham.com/HBR Leading Change – Why Transformation Efforts Fail.pdf [Accessed November 27, 2018].

Luxford, K., Safran, D.G. and Delbanco, T. (2011), “Promoting patient-centered care: a qualitative study of facilitators and barriers in healthcare organizations with a reputation for improving the patient experience”, International Journal of Quality in Health Care, Vol. 23 No. 5, pp. 510-515.

McFadden, K.L., Stock, G.N. and Gowen III, C.R., 2015. Leadership, safety climate, and continuous quality improvement: impact on process quality and patient safety. Health care management review, 40(1), pp.24-34.

Øvretveit, J. (2011), “Understanding the conditions for improvement: research to discover which context influences affect improvement success”, BMJ Quality and Safety, Vol. 20, pp. 18-21.

Serrano, L. (2010), “A culture of excellence, ISO 15189: 2007 medical laboratory accreditation”, Clinical Leadership Management Review, Vol. 24 No. 1, pp. 1-4

Singh, H. and Sittig, D.F., 2016. Measuring and improving patient safety through health information technology: The Health IT Safety Framework. BMJ Qual Saf, 25(4), pp.226-232.

Swartling, D. and Poksinska, B. (2013), “Management initiation of continuous improvement from a motivational perspective”, Journal of Applied Economic and Business Research, Vol. 3 No. 2, pp. 81-94

Taylor, B.B., Parekh, V., Estrada, C.A., Schleyer, A. and Sharpe, B., 2014. Documenting quality improvement and patient safety efforts: The quality portfolio. A statement from the academic hospitalist taskforce. Journal of general internal medicine, 29(1), pp.214-218.

Thom, K.A., Heil, E.L., Croft, L.D., Duffy, A., Morgan, D.J. and Johantgen, M., 2016. Advancing interprofessional patient safety education for medical, nursing, and pharmacy learners during clinical rotations. Journal of interprofessional care, 30(6), pp.819-822.  Report On Patient Safety Discussion Paper