Patient Safety

Post 1
After doing this weeks reading i think it is clear that it is important to provide both quality and safe care to patients. Even though there are different focuses between quality care and patient safety i think having both of them in mind when implementing interventions needs to be a priority. According to Sherwood & Barnsteiner(2017), “The goal of quality is to reach for the best practice, and the goal is determined by measuring the reality of the care delivered compared with benchmarks or the ideal outcome.” The goal of patient safety is to do no harm, and to reduce patient harm. The hospital that i work at is currently implementing a quality improvement project that will also increase patient safety significantly. The program being implemented is a resuscitation quality improvement. This project is to improve the quality of CPR for our patients, while simultaneously achieving greater patient safety. Every three months we take a shorter version of the ACLS/PALS/BLS written exams and perform the hands on skills portions with instant feedback of performance of these certifications. The mindset of this program is that after three months from taking these courses our skills start to fade, and that by doing them every three months versus yearly or every two years our skills stay up to date and fresh in our minds so that given we are in the situation that our patients need these interventions we are providing the greatest quality of CPR and therefore increasing our patients safety.

Post 2
Definition of quality is, “A measure of the ability of a provider for individuals and populations that increase the likelihood of desired health outcomes and are consistent with current professional knowledge. The quality of health care can best be carried out by doing the right thing, at the right time, in the right way, for the right person, and getting the best possible results. According to the mantra for the quality improvement movement, care should be safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient, and equitable. “ . Patient safety, “Emphasis is placed on the system of care delivery that prevents errors, learns from the errors that do occur; and is built on a culture of safety that involves health care professionals, organizations, and patients” (Mitchell PH.). Patient safety is the foundation of high-quality health care. Nurses play very big role when it comes to patient safety, preventing any harm to patients by providing quality of care. Nurses can take many steps to ensure patient safety such as preventing falls by determining if patient is a fall risk. If patient is a fall risk putting patient on fall precaution. Nurse should make sure all right of medication pass are taken before giving meds to prevent any medication error. All the critical steps lead to patient safety and providing quality care for your patient.