Chapter 27: Patient Safety And Quality Flashcards
How is health care working to provide a safe environment for patients?
- Performance Improvement (PI) analysis
- Risk Management findings
- Safety reports
- Integrating EBP into procedures
- Working o design safe work environments
- providing continuing education
- providing appropriate resources for staff
Nurses have the responsibility to
Involve themselves in promoting a safe patient-centered culture.
QSEN
Quality Safety Education for Nurses
- project design for student nurses to help prepare them with necessary tools to continuously improve the quality and safety of the healthcare system in which they work
- stresses system effectiveness and individual performance
QSEN teaches students that as a nurse
- you are responsible for critical thinking skills
- utilizing the nursing process
- assessing each patient and their environment for hazards
- planning and intervening appropriately
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
…
What safety risks are there for older adults?
- elder abuse
- multiple medications, acute/chronic disease, increase risk for falls, poor eyesight, slow response time, decreased sensory perception, decreased muscle mass
What safety risks are there for children/adolescents?
- child abuse
- adolescent: risky behaviors
What safety risks are there for adults?
Lifestyle habits such as ETOH, smoking and stress
What other patients have safety risks?
Patient’s that are mentally challenged or have dementia.
What are the individual risk factors for safety?
- lifestyle
- impaired mobility
- sensory or communication impairment
- lack of safety awareness
National Quality Forum:
- publicly reporting patient safety information (events, indicators, measures)
- lists serious REPORTABLE events (box 27-3, pg 378)
- many are nurse-sensitive indicators (cause by poor nursing)
Never Events
(Box 27-4 p. 378) designated as serious adverse events that should never occur in the health care setting
-CMS denies hospitals higher payment for any hospital acquired condition resulting from or complicated by the occurrence of certain Never Events
When an event (or near miss) occurs an
Incident Report (Unusual Occurrence Report is filled out
Reports help the organization by
- Watching for trending of repeated issues
- Initiating “Root Cause Analysis” to discover why the event occurred.
- Promotes teaching and process improvement
What are the Inherent Safety Risks in the Health Care Environment?
- Falls
- Patient-inherent accidents
- Procedure related accidents
- Equipment-related accidents
Factors influencing an increased risk for falling:
- a history of falling
- being 65 years of age or older
- reduced vision
- effects of medication
- urinary incontinence
- use of walking AIDS
- effects of various medications
- orthostatic hypotension, gait, and balance problems.
Patient-inherent accidents:
accidents in which the patient is the primary reason for the accident.
Procedure related accidents:
caused by health care providers and include medication and fluid administration errors, improper application of external devices and accidents related to improper performance of procedures.
Equipment-related accidents:
result from malfunction, disrepair, misuse of equipment or from an electrical hazard.
Patients most at risk for injury from falls are
Those with bleeding tendencies resulting from: disease (clotting disorders), patients on anticoagulants (risk for intracranial bleed, subdural hematomas), and osteoporosis (increased risk for fractures).
Falls result in minor to sever injuries resulting in
Reduced mobility, independence and premature death. Ex) fractures, head trauma.
Material Safety Data Sheets (MSDS)
on every unit
-provides information on how to deal with chemical hazards: (ex. spills)
Hospital patients have inherent increased risk for falling R/T
- unfamiliar environment
- acute illness
- surgery
- mobility status
- medications (diuretics, anxiolytics, antihypertensives)
- treatments
- placement of tubes and catheters
Assessment: Risk for Falls
- observe patient’s posture, ROM, strength, balance and body alignment
- assess patient’s visual acuity, ability to read, identify distant objects
- complete a home hazard appraisal.
When are fall risk tools used?
completed on admission, after a fall, when the patient’s condition changes and upon transfer to another unit.
What nursing measures can a nurse take to decrease this risk for falls?
- thorough assessments
- communication about patient risks (yellow gown, yellow armband, footies)
- signage
- providing a safe, clutter free environment (call light & needed patient belongings within reach)
- teamwork
- patient & family involvement