Patton 1 Taylor Patton Nur-112 1/17/2022 Patient Safety Patient safety is one of the most in-depth and important priorities that a nurse will master during their career. In order to ensure that patients are safe during their stay, The Joint Commission developed the Nation Patient Safety Goals to lower the margin of error and ensure that patients have the highest quality of care possible. These goals have evolved to ensure that patients are properly identified, medications are administered safely, and reducing the occurrence of hospital acquired infections in order to promote patient safety and ensure higher patient outcomes. Identification According to the National Patient Safety Goals for 2022, improving the accuracy of patient identification can help prevent many wrong-patient errors that occur during diagnosis and treatment. These errors can include giving the wrong medication to the patient, mis-identifying the patient for procedures, or even taking the patient down for the wrong surgery. To prevent these errors, The Joint Commission, who we will refer to as TJC from here on, recommends using two patient identifiers when providing care and treatment. These identifiers can include the patients name, the ID, telephone number, date of birth, or any other facility approved identification system. Newborns are more difficult to identify because of their inability to communicate and their undistinguished facial features. In cases such as that you would need to refer to an ID band and the parents. Patton 2 Medication Administration TJC’s goal for medication administration focuses on the safety of the patient by keeping the medications labeled correctly and in a sterile field. Errors sometime result from medications being mislabeled or placed into containers that are completely unlabeled. In other instances, patients are given the wrong dose or the wrong medications. TJC states that “There is evidence that medication discrepancies can affect patient outcomes.” Medication errors can cause our patients to stay in the hospital longer, or even experience worsening conditions. In addition to medication administration safety, nurses should also adhere to the Five Rights of Medication Administration: the right patient, the right drug, the right dose, the right route, and the right time. The patient should also be identified 3 times before the medications are administered to them. Adherence to these policies can help prevent medication errors that could be detrimental to the patients. Hospital Acquired Infections, HAI Hospital acquired infections can be very detrimental to a patient’s outcomes. Because so many people develop HAIs, it has become an issue that directly involves patient safety. In order to prevent infection, hospital staff should always wash their hands properly in compliance with the CDC guidelines. Staff should always wash hands after visiting a patient, either with soap and water or hand sanitizer. Some HAIs are resistance to hand sanitizer, as is the case with C. difficile, which usually occur when a patient is on very strong antibiotics and causes very sever diarrhea and dehydration. When washing hands with soap and water, one should remember to lather their hands for 20 seconds, not forgetting to scrub the back of the hand and wrists. Hand washing is the most effective way of reducing the occurrence of HAIs. Patton 3 Conclusion Patient safety should be every nurse’s number one priority. There are so many small steps that a nurse can take to prevent potentially detrimental errors during their patient care. Correctly identifying a patient allows the correct medication or procedures to be done on time. Administering medications safely with the five rights can prevent medication errors and ensure patient safety. And simply washing one’s hands can prevent the spread of devastation infections which can cause patients to be set back in their care and can often be life-threatening. There are many things that nurses do without thinking that can be detrimental to their patient’s health, so remembering these basic safety consideration can potentially save a life.
