Keeping Patients Safe: Transforming the Work Environment of Nurses

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

ANA applauded the Institute of Medicine (IOM) for a report, released Nov. 4, which shows a clear link between the nursing work environment and patient safety, and recommends improvements in health care working conditions that would lead to safer patient care. The study, Keeping Patients Safe: Transforming the Work Environment of Nurses, builds on the recommendations made in the groundbreaking To Err is Human IOM study, released in 2000, which found that as many as 98,000 patients per year die as a result of medical errors. Based on the study's findings and recommendations, ANA President Barbara Blakeney noted that Congress urgently needs to act on several pending legislative measures that would improve the nursing work environment. These include bills that would 1) call for greater decision making among nurses' to establish safe nurse/patient ratios, 2) severely limit the unsafe practice of mandatory overtime, and 3) provide sufficient funding for nursing workforce development. To access ANA's news release, see http://www.ana.org/pressrel/2003/pr1105.htm; to access the IOM report, see http://www4.nationalacademies.org/news.nsf/isbn/0309090776?OpenDocument

Contact: Cheryl A. Peterson, ext. 7089, or [email protected].

[NRSKarenRN, BSN, RN]

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[pickledpepperRN]

NRSKarenRN;

THANK YOU!