Patient Safety Associate Job Description

The Global Ministerial Summit on Patient Safety

Patient safety is a health care discipline that emerged from the complexity of health care systems and the rise of patient harm in health care facilities. It aims to prevent and reduce harms to patients during health care. Learning from errors and adverse events is a cornerstone of the discipline.

Quality essential health services are delivered with patient safety in mind. Quality health services should be safe and people-centred, according to a consensus. Quality health care can be realized by health services being timely, equitable, integrated and efficient.

To ensure successful implementation of patient safety strategies, clear policies, leadership capacity, data to drive safety improvements, skilled health care professionals and effective involvement of patients in their care all needed. Millions of patients suffer injuries or die every year because of unsafe and poor quality health care. Many medical practices and risks are emerging as major challenges for patient safety and contribute significantly to the burden of harm due to unsafe care.

Some of the patient safety situations are causing concern. The annual Global Ministerial Summits on Patient Safety are annual event that WHO provides strategic guidance and leadership to countries through, which seek to advance the patient safety agenda at the political leadership level with the support of health ministers, high-level delegates, experts and representatives from international organizations. The creation of networking and collaborative initiatives such as the Global Patient Safety Network and the Global Patient Safety Collaborative is encouraged by WHO.

ANA Campaign: Improving the Quality of Nursing Care

It will be important for society to work to improve communication between direct care nurses and nursing management and administration, promote staffing flexibility and utilization of appropriate staffing formulas, discourage the use of mandatory overtime, provide adequate compensation, minimize hazards, promote workplace safety, and implement new technologies that automate non-critical The knowledge needed to support increasingly complex nursing care will be provided by establishing the baccalaureate degree as entry-level into professional nursing practice. Increased technological support, reduction of unnecessary paperwork, recruitment of men and ethnic and racial minorities, and improving the media and public's image of nursing are considered necessary.

Patients who are informed can help increase the safety of their care. They can inquire about the credentials and competencies of the health care practitioners who are providing care and demand the provision of care by appropriately educated and licensed health care practitioners. Patients understood the need to have registered nurses in their care during the ANA's campaign.

A team-based approach to assessing nurses' compliance with patient safety principles

The nurses are supposed to keep patient safety and prevent harm in long-term care settings. The nurses are expected to follow organizational strategies for identifying harms and risks through assessing the patient, planning for care, monitoring and surveillance activities, double-checking, and communicating with other healthcare providers. In addition to clear policies, leadership, research driven safety initiatives, training of healthcare staff, and patient participation, nurses' adherence to the principles of patient safety is required for the success of interventions aimed at the prevention of practice errors and to achieve sustainable and safer.

The patient-safety climate, time pressure, encouragement by leaders and colleagues, and provision of education for the improvement of ward performance are some of the institutional factors that influence nurses adherence to and compliance with patient-safety principles. Personal factors that impact on the nurses adherence to patient-safety principles are: resistance to change, feelings of autonomy, and empowerment. After team discussions, a pilot search in general and specialized databases was performed, and consultation with a librarian was done.

A search using key terms relating to adherence to patient safety principles by nurses was conducted. The definition of adherence was used for the study concept to operationalise. The word compliance is sometimes used with the word adherence, since both can indicate the outcome of care interactions between the healthcare provider and the caregivers.

Adherence shows responsibility on the healthcare professional's part to actively perform the expected behavior compared to compliance that shows responsibility on the patient's part to follow up therapeutic regimen. The introduction of a validation tool for handover improved nurses' readiness to receive patients from the intensive care unit. It helped with the preparation of the equipment for care, enabled handovers at the patient bedside, involved patients in their care, and helped with checking patients' identity and collecting data of their medical history and allergies.

The standardising of the handover process helped with the continuity of care plan by formalising discussions between nurses and assisting with removal of any ambiguities, so increasing awareness of risks to patient safety. The higher adherence rate to standard precautions for infection control was found when there was a higher nurse-to-patient ratio. The development of a local practice standard for cardiac monitoring and surveillance and the assessment of eligibility for admission to critical and non-critical telemetry sections would improve adherence to patient-safety principles for the cardiac patient.

A Safe Patient Handling Program for Healthcare Facilities

The shoulders and low back are the most affected parts of the body, and they are the ones that are most often injured. The problem of lifting patients is compounded by the increasing weight of patients due to the Obesity epidemic in the United States and the rapidly increasing number of older people who need assistance with the activities of daily living. The consequences of work-related injuries are serious.

Nurse injuries are costly due to higher employer costs, as well as chronic pain and functional disability, and turnover. Some nurses leave direct patient care positions because of the risks associated with the work. The healthcare industry has an estimated cost of $20 billion annually due to back injuries.

Pain and fatigue may affect healthcare employees in a number of ways, including being less productive, less attentive, more susceptible to injury, and possibly affecting the health and safety of others. The healthcare industry needs to rely on technology to make patient handling and movement safe. Lifting and patient transfer devices are used to control the risk of injury to patients and staff.

Management commitment to implement a safe patient handling program and to provide workers with appropriate measures to avoid manual handling are essential elements of a program. The education and training of healthcare employees should be geared towards assessment of the risks in the healthcare setting, selection and use of the appropriate patient lifting equipment and devices, and review of research-based practices of safe patient handling. The use of equipment and devices that help patients is beneficial to both patients and healthcare staff.

Explaining lifting procedures to patients prior to lifting can increase patient safety and comfort, and enhance their sense of dignity. The Alliance recognized that patient handling practices have an impact on both healthcare workers and patients. Safe patient handling practices reduce the risk of a patient falling.