Nurse Safety and Quality Improvement

• July 2, 2020
• Tony Guo
• no comments

Safety and Quality Improvement

• National Patient Safety Goals
  • Goal 1: Identify patients correctly
    • Use at least two ways to identify patients (for example, have them state full name and date of birth)
    • Give the correct patient the correct blood with every blood transfusion
  • Goal 2: Improve communication among the health care team
    • Quickly get critical test results to the right staff person
  • Goal 3: Use medications safely
    • Label all medicines that are not already labeled. Discard any found unlabeled
    • Use appropriate precautions with patients who take anticoagulants
    • Find out what medications each patient is taking. Make certain that it is safe for the patient to take any new medicines with his or her current medicines
    • Give a list of the patient’s medicines to the patient and his or her caregiver before they go home. Explain the list
  • Goal 6: Use clinical alarm systems safely
    • Respond to alarms in a timely manner
    • Do not turn alarms off
  • Goal 7: Prevent health care-associated infections (HAI)
    • Use soap, water, and hand sanitizers before and after every patient contact
    • Use evidence-based practices to prevent infections related to central lines, indwelling urinary catheters, and multidrug-resistant organisms
  • Goal 15: Identify the safety risks inherent in the agency’s patient population
    • Assess patients at risk for suicide
    • Assess any risks for patients who are getting home oxygen therapy, such as fires

• Universal Protocol (UP)
  • Pre-procedure verifications, Mark procedure site, Performance of time-out
    • Conduct a time-out before the start of any invasive or surgical procedure
    • Confirm correct patient, procedure, and site

Evidence-Based Practice

• Problem-solving approach to clinical decision making
• Using the best available evidence, with your expertise and patient’s preferences, to make decisions and improve patient outcomes
• To implement EBP, you must develop the skills to be able to seek and incorporate into practice scientific evidence that supports best patient outcomes.