Topics About 'Patient Safety'.

I sat down with Margo in her dining room one evening to talk about a medication error she made when she was a new nurse. I asked Margo to tell me a bit about herself. She hadn't always wanted to be a nurse. She was studying entomology (bugs) at NC St...

Have you seen a nurse eyeball a vaccine site before giving an injection? Does it make you think twice? Do you know that if a vaccine is not given in the correct location of the deltoid muscle, a vaccine-related shoulder injury or nerve injury could o...

The population of older adults (aged 65+ years old) in the United States is one of the fastest-growing demographics in the nation. Growth is expected to reach 80.8 million by 2040, which is twice as many older adults as there were in 20001. Prepari...

According to the Joint Commission, breakdowns in communication cause approximately 80 percent of all medical errors. Although this is a daunting number, those with limited English proficiency (LEP) are more prone to patient safety events than English...

We have seen the exodus of hundreds of thousands of registered nurses these last 2 years, after bravely caring for the public during the Covid pandemic, with significant risk to themselves. Many nurses became infected, and some died, due to the failu...

It is inevitable, at some point, that as a nurse, you are going to be assigned a patient that is or has become agitated. Most of us nurses are great communicators, but an angry patient who may also be experiencing psychosis can be difficult to manage...

"We are short again today" - A daily phrase used by nursing staff that summarizes the consistent inadequate nursing staff ratios that healthcare facilities seem to continue to support. Inadequate nursing staffing ratios greatly diminish the likelihoo...

Nurses all over the country have united in protest against the comments made about nurses on The View. One single act has managed to unite many despite the inter-nursing battles of different specialties, RN versus LPN, and varying entry-level degrees...

Nursing focus and objectives were the same in the early 1900s as they are now, however elementary in comparison they may seem. Safe patient care and treatment are of utmost importance and has been since nursing began. Nurses who read the questions I ...

At my current HCA hospital, we have an extreme shortage of Registered Respiratory Therapists. To help with that shortage, several nurses have been trained to assist the one RRT with things such as neb treatments, vent checks, suctioning, preparing fo...

Being a new member of the nursing department, Alexis quickly realized the challenges the team faced. COVID was taking its toll. Everyone was just tired. Tired of working extra shifts. Tired of feeling helpless. Tired of wondering if we would ever “be...

At Westside Regional Medical Center in Plantation, Florida, ICU nurse Julie Griffin worked in the 12 bed cardiovascular ICU (CVICU.) Until she was fired for refusing to take a third patient. Westside Regional Medical Center is part of HCA Healthcare....

Dealing With Error I have written about error in Why do we continue to harm patients? In that article, I give statistics about the number of people who are killed while in the hands of trusted healthcare professionals. The Joint Commission has ma...

The medical record is a permanent collection of legal documents that should supply an all-encompassing, accurate report concerning a patient's health condition. Physicians, nurses, social workers, dieticians, mid-level providers and other members of ...

How to manage the many alarms that the bedside nurse must assess? "The Joint Commission has identified alarm management as a national patient safety goal and requires hospitals to take action to reduce unnecessary alarms as a condition of accreditati...

I always kind of assumed (yes I know, never assume etc) that after working in this environment nurses and carers become empathic with their patients. Like most of my breed, I am tired, burning out and jadedly cynical but I keep on going, why? Well he...

Like Phil Jackson once quoted, "The strength of the team is each individual member. The strength of each member is the team" (Jackson, 2014). How true is this quote, we all have our strengths and weaknesses that blended together with other members of...

The purpose of this article is to address concerns related to the time frame allowed to administer the medications at skilled nursing facilities and the number of medication errors, especially ‘wrong time’ errors due to the apparently impossible task...

Most people working in hospital understand the impact of the hospital environment on the patient experience. There is evidence that good environments can have a therapeutic effect on patients. But what constitutes a good environment? The mind, body, ...

Home care nurses have a unique and rewarding job. You provide skilled care where the patient lives. You get to experience their everyday life and impact their overall health and well-being. But, there are dangers when traveling all day in and ou...

When I asked why they were not covered by Medicare or Medicaid, I was told that a sliding board is a tool that helps the caregiver 's back more than the patient. While it is true that a transfer board does cut down on back strain for caregivers, slid...

Nurses care for vulnerable populations each day. Patients might be considered vulnerable because of economic, social, or political standings or because of an illness or disability. Regardless of the reason for the patient's vulnerability, it’s the nu...

Read the the rest of the story. https://nypost.com/2019/10/11/nj-nurse-claims-co-workers-fed-patients-benadryl-to-lighten-workload/

The focus of this case study was very interesting. ChristianaCare used three different quality initiatives to improve and enhance patient care. ChristianaCare identified nursing staff felt that with the insertion of a catheter device there wa...

As nurses, we are bound by our oath to provide quality care for every patient. This means holding hospitals and other healthcare facilities accountable for sufficient numbers of experienced nurses to ensure patient safety and support inexperienced nu...