Practising Patient Safety: A Nursing Guide to Keeping Patients Safe

Are you a nurse, or perhaps you're studying nursing to become one? It's a noble calling, caring for the sickest, most vulnerable, and needy of the population. Nursing is an incredibly rewarding field, and there are many specializations that you can embark on as a nurse, including geriatric, pediatric, and psychiatric nursing. 

As a nurse, it's your responsibility to keep your patients safe. As they're incredibly vulnerable while accessing healthcare, patient safety should be first and foremost in your mind as you practice. Whether you're working part-time or full-time as a nurse or you're completing an online accelerated nursing program, you'll know the importance of practising patient safety.

This helpful article will share all about patient safety, and a nursing guide to keeping patients safe in your care. Read this article carefully because it will be an excellent resource to learn alongside your formal study. Continue reading to learn more.

What is Patient Safety?

Patient safety, simply put, is the prevention of avoidable errors and the harm they cause patients; it is the foundation of good patient care. Achieving safety in patient care is part of achieving quality patient care overall. As a nurse, you have a duty of care to protect and manage your patients' safety and well-being, so keeping them safe is a top priority for you. 

"First, no harm" is a common saying and is the most fundamental principle of any healthcare service. No one should be harmed while they access healthcare; however, there is compelling evidence of a huge amount of avoidable patient harm globally across the developed and developing healthcare systems in countries. This has major human, moral, ethical, and financial implications for healthcare providers and society as a whole.

The World Health Organization defines patient safety as "the absence of preventable harm to a patient and reduction of risk of unnecessary harm associated with health care to an acceptable minimum." Within the broader healthcare system context, it is "a framework of organized activities that creates cultures, processes, procedures, behaviors, technologies and environments in health care that consistently and sustainably lower risks, reduce the occurrence of avoidable harm, make the error less likely and reduce the impact of harm when it does occur."

What Are Common Sources of Patient Harm?

There are several common sources of healthcare-related harms and risks to patients, which we'll cover in detail now.

Healthcare-Associated Infections

With a total global rate of 0.14% (increasing by 0.06% each year since it has been tracked), healthcare-associated infections, which are caught as a result of procedures and hospital stays, result in extended duration of hospital stays, permanent or long-lasting disability, increased antimicrobial resistance, an additional financial burden on patients, families and health systems, and can sometimes result in avoidable deaths. 

Medication Errors

Medication error-related harm affects 1 out of every 30 patients in healthcare settings, with more than a quarter of this harm classified as severe or life-threatening. Half of the total avoidable harm in healthcare is related to medication mismanagement and errors.

Surgical Errors 

More than 300 million surgical procedures are performed each year around the world. Despite rising awareness of adverse effects, surgical errors continue to occur at a high rate. Ten percent of preventable patient harm in healthcare settings is reported in surgical settings, and the majority of adverse events occur before and after surgical procedures.

Pressure Ulcers

Pressure ulcers are injuries sustained to the skin or soft tissue. They develop from pressure on particular parts of the body over an extended period, such as a prolonged hospital stay. If not promptly managed, they can have severe and fatal complications. Pressure ulcers affect more than 10% of patients admitted to hospitals, and despite being highly preventable, they can have a huge impact on the mental and physical health of patients and their quality of life.

Sepsis

Sepsis, or blood poisoning, is a serious health condition that occurs when the body's immune system has an extreme response to an infection. This reaction causes damage to the body's tissues and organs. Of all sepsis cases managed in hospitals, nearly a quarter were found to be healthcare-associated, and approximately a quarter of affected patients lost their lives as a result of sepsis.

Diagnostic Errors

Unfortunately, they occur in around 5–20% of physician–patient encounters. According to doctor reviews, harmful diagnostic errors were found in a minimum of 0.7% of adult admissions. Most people will suffer a diagnostic error in their lifetime, which can have results ranging from annoying to life-threatening.

Patient Misidentification

Failure to correctly identify patients can be a leading cause of many problems and has severe effects on healthcare provision. It can lead to catastrophic adverse effects, such as wrong-site surgery and death. 

Venous Thromboembolism

More simply known as blood clots, venous thromboembolism is a highly dangerous and preventable cause of patient harm, which contributes to one-third of the complications attributed to hospitalization in healthcare settings.

Patient Falls

Patient falls are the most frequent adverse events in hospitals. Their rate of occurrence ranges from 3 to 5 per 1000 bed-day durations, and more than one-third of these incidents result in injury, which reduces positive clinical outcomes and increases the financial burden on systems and patients. 

Unsafe Transfusion Practices

Unnecessary blood transfusions and unsafe transfusion practices expose healthcare patients to the risk of serious adverse transfusion reactions and transfusion-transmissible infections. 

Unsafe Injection Practices

Each year, around 16 billion injections are administered worldwide, such as vaccines and medications, and unsafe injection practices place patients and healthcare workers at risk of infectious diseases and non-infectious adverse events. 

How Can Nurses Practise and Prioritize Patient Safety?

There are a few ways that nurses can achieve this for better healthcare outcomes for patients.

Effective and efficient communication protocols between nurses, doctors, and other healthcare staff are essential. It is also vital that nurses stay current with new procedures, policies, and healthcare equipment use. You also need to understand and follow all regulatory and safety guidelines and policies. 

A nurse's role in patient safety involves keeping up with the latest research and evidence-based practices, as well as being diligent and proactive when delivering healthcare to patients. Also, there is a role to play in healthcare management in effectively managing nurse workloads, patient caseloads, and burnout to ensure that preventable mistakes aren't made and patients don't come to any harm.