Patient Safety Concerns and Ideas

[TNnursejane, BSN, RN]

Do you have any ideas on how patient safety could be enhanced?

JCAHO has given us the 7 patient safety goals and expect compliance. These days things are scary. We hear all of the horror stories and I believe its time we take up this cross and push for changes.

Do you know of or has your hospital implemented any changes for patient safety that has worked or not worked? Would love to hear!

Thanks

[KristabRN]

I feel that enhancing patient safety is a huge responsibility of the nurse. I am a new nurse, and i have realized that most of my patients are elderly, which puts them more at risk to needing assistance with patient safety issues, for example, because of falls. The hospital that i work at has recently implemented new restraint protocols for patients, which i believe helps out tremendously. Most patient falls that i have witnessed have been a result of confused patients crawling out of bed in the middle of the night, or any time for that fact. Our hospital also requires us, upon admission assessment, to do a "high risk fall" assessment to determine patients that are at a more elevated risk for falls due to medications, illness, elder age, history of previous fall, etc. If the patient scores above a certain number, they get yellow bracelets that help target staff to the patients that will need more assistance. Staffing also seems to aid in this...if patient/ nurse or staff ratios are adequate it allows you to care for patients the way they should be treated...just some of my input.. :)