Importance Of Safety In Nursing

I’m sure we have all heard the phrase at least once in our lives “safety first” whether it is from a mom telling her kid to wear a helmet before riding a bike or stretching before a run, these are precautionary measures used to insure the safety of an individual. Safety plays a very vital role in everyday life especially when it comes to healthcare. In the article “An Academic Practice Partnership: Helping New Registered Nurses to Advance Quality and Patient Safety” by Gale Hickenlooper and Rebecca Saxton, it discusses the importance of implementing safety guidelines as well as preparing nursing students to be able to have the knowledge and skills needed to be an effective nurse.

As a nurse safety is always going to be a number one priority when it comes to bettering our patient’s health. In the United States healthcare safety and regulations is constantly changing and trying to become more efficient thanks to countless studies conducted by a variety of organizations like the American Nurses Association Safety and Quality Initiative. Studied have found that many nurses are graduating nursing school lacking the “knowledge, skills or attitudes necessary to move beyond the task of reporting”. In efforts to help better prepare future nurses, the American Association of Nurse Executives (AONE) helped create academic partnerships. These partnerships allow students to conduct projects in real life situations which not only helps them learn but they also useful data that can be used to help shed light on what needs improvement in our healthcare system. Students who participated in these partnerships have expressed that they feel confident in their ability to ensure safety as well as quality care for patients.

As someone who works in the health care field safety is always one of the top priorities. By following safety guidelines and being proactive this can help prevent an “unsafe” environment or situation. I work at a nursing home and at least once a week there is a mandatory staff meeting where the staff brainstorms ideas on how we can keep improving safety for our residence whether it is fall prevention, infection control, or abiding by the states regulations. Every time there is a fall we will have a meeting on how we could have prevented the fall from even happening and the steps we need to take to ensure that it will not happen again. Something that I found very interesting is in the article one of the studies conducted by students had to do with infection control and the use of phones for nurse’s communication. The students found that these phones carry tons of organisms that are consistent with infections received while in the hospital. I use one of these phones at my job and have often thought that it was not sanitary because no one ever cleans them and there are times where people prior use the phone without washing their hands or worse with their gloves still on. I think the concept of allowing students to learn outside of the classroom by participating in these partnerships is great. When you are taught the basic scenarios in the class room yes it gives you an idea of how to properly deal with a situation but by experiencing things first hand and seeing how things are in real life I believe you learn more from that.

Conclusion

In health care nurses are the backbone of the medical team. They are constantly providing bedside assistance to their patients and are the member of the health care team that really gets to know their patient best. That being said it is vital for incoming nurses to feel confident in their abilities to safely care for their patients to ensure the best care possible.