General Organizational Safety and Quality Best Practices Free Essay Example

This is a tool kit aimed at improving workplace safety for medical practitioners in a hospital setting. The kit is organized into four categories general organizational safety and quality best practices; environmental safety and quality risks; individual strategies to improve personal and team safety; and process best practices for reporting and improving environmental safety issues.

Annotated Bibliography

General Organizational Safety and Quality Best Practices

Melnyk, B. M., Gallagher ‐ Ford, L., Zellefrow, C., Tucker, S., Thomas, B., Sinnott, L. T., & Tan, A. (2018). The first US study on nurses' evidence ‐ based practice competencies indicates major deficits that threaten healthcare quality, safety, and patient outcomes. Worldviews on Evidence ‐ Based Nursing, 15(1), 16-25.

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One of the main tools that can contribute to a safer nursing environment and the attainment of best practices in nursing is the adoption of current evidence-based practices. This article explores the US current level of evidence ‐ based practice adoption. The article further explores the important factors associated with evidence-based practice competencies in a hospital setting with improved quality, safety, and patient outcome being the main end results of evidence-based practice adoption. Through an anonymous online survey responded by 2344 nurses, the study established that there is a need for enhanced nurses skills to achieve high-quality care and optimal patient health.

Campione, J., & Famolaro, T. (2018). Promising practices for improving hospital patient safety culture. The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety, 44(1), 23-32.

Developing a patient's safety culture in a hospital setting is one of the influencers of quality improvement and effective safety in the nursing environment. This article provides an insight into the promising best practice that can lead to an improved safety culture in the hospital setting. The article's findings are based on a longitudinal survey done on 536 hospitals to establish promising practices for improving hospital patient safety culture. Three main practices noted that promise improved culture of quality include quality improvement goal setting, implementing evidence based safety programs and initiatives, and rigorous monitoring quality standards to ensure compliance to set quality goals. This article is important to nurses since it provides the promising best practice that can lead to an improved safety culture in the hospital setting.

Hemingway, M. W., O'Malley, C., & Silvestri, S. (2015). Safety culture and care: a program to prevent surgical errors. AORN Journal, 101(4), 404-415.

Surgical errors are an indicator of poor safety culture in nursing. This article critically scrutinized surgical errors in nursing care to ensure a safety culture is enhanced in the hospital environment. The article explores how to develop a preoperative service department that ensures optimal safety for patients with minimal surgical errors. Other than the adoption of minimum error standards that act as a benchmark in the industry, the initiative proposed by the paper ensures the nursing environment offer optimal quality care with errors below the acceptable standards. The study also recommends improved error reporting systems and improved preoperative service resources. The article is relevant to nursing since it provides a recommendation on how well to create a preoperative environment that ensures patients safety hence minimizing surgical errors in the hospital setting.

Environmental Safety and Quality Risks

Hall, L. H., Johnson, J., Watt, I., Tsipa, A., & O'Connor, D. B. (2016). Healthcare staff wellbeing, burnout, and patient safety: a systematic review. PloS one , 11(7), e0159015.

This article explores the association between nursing staff wellbeing and patients safety. Nursing staffs are the ones mandated with ensuring patients safety is optimal in the hospital. When the nursing employee wellbeing is compromised, the nursing environment becomes prone to poor service delivery, which translates to poor quality of patient care. The article reveals that high burnout levels lead to poor safety outcomes and many medical errors. A nursing environment that does not offer the nursing staff a conducive working atmosphere, compromises on the working environment safety. This article is relevant to understanding how to improve workplace safety for medical practitioners in a hospital setting. Through the article recommendations, the hospital administration can improve its staff mental health to create a safer working environment, which further translates to improved patients safety.

Lake, E. T., Hallowell, S. G., Kutney-Lee, A., Hatfield, L. A., Del Guidice, M., Boxer, B., ... & Aiken, L. H. (2016). Higher quality of care and patient safety associated with better NICU work environments. Journal of nursing care quality , 31(1), 24.

This paper investigated the association between neonatal intensive care unit working environment, safety, the quality of patients care, and the patients' outcomes. The paper wanted to establish if the working environment in the hospital setting has a significant impact on the quality of care, safety, and patients' outcome. The study adopted a secondary analysis in 171 hospitals and established that improving the hospitals working environment is the best strategy to achieve a safer and less risky environment for newborns. The article is relevant to understanding how to improve workplace safety in a hospital setting by first improving the hospitals working environment so as to ensure there is an optimal quality of care and patient safety.

Slemon, A., Jenkins, E., & Bungay, V. (2017). Safety in psychiatric inpatient care: The impact of risk management culture on mental health nursing practice. Nursing Inquiry , 24(4), e12199.

The article examines safety in a psychiatric inpatient care environment. The psychiatric inpatient care environment needs to adopt high safety standards as the patients involved are a source of possible risk in the nursing environment. The article illustrates that with the growing concern for improved nursing care in psychiatric inpatient care, the article has recommended four risk management strategies in psychiatric inpatient care. The strategies are seclusion, close observation, defensive nursing practices, and door locking. The article is relevant in understanding how to improve nursing workplace safety by developing a culture that supports safety and risk management in psychiatric inpatient care.

Individual Strategies to Improve Personal and Team Safety in nursing

Currey, J., Eustace, P., Oldland, E., Glanville, D., & Story, I. (2015). Developing professional attributes in critical care nurses using Team-Based Learning. Nurse education in practice , 15(3), 232-238.

The article explores how nurses develop professional attributes using Team-Based Learning as a strategy to improve personal and team safety in nursing. To improve both individual and team safety in the nursing environment, Team-based learning is one of the educational strategies that improve nurses' education in the hospital setting. The paper reveals that team-based learning enhances critical thinking, engagement, motivation to participate, and effective learning. It is an important tool for accelerating the acquisition of improved individual and team safety in the nursing environment. This article is an important addition to the understanding of how to develop a safe nursing working environment through the adoption of Team-Based Learning as a strategy to improve personal and team safety in nursing.

Phillips, J. M., Stalter, A. M., Dolansky, M. A., & Lopez, G. M. (2016). Fostering future leadership in quality and safety in health care through systems thinking. Journal of Professional Nursing , 32(1), 15-24.

A strong nursing leadership that is aligned to workplace safety and quality care is a possible mean towards the attainment of quality patient care. The article explores the need for leadership in safety and quality care reforms in the nursing working environment. Through focused leadership, both personal and team safety in the nursing environment is enhanced. Today's healthcare environment is complex and is comprised of disparate health services to patients. The article is relevant since notes with improved and focused leadership, the nursing working environment, and a personal and team safety nursing environment shall be attained.

Stewart, G. L., Manges, K. A., & Ward, M. M. (2015). Empowering sustained patient safety: the benefits of combining top-down and bottom-up approaches. Journal of nursing care quality , 30(3), 240-246.

To ensure sustained patients safety in the hospital setting requires the adoption of appropriate communication strategies among all stakeholders. This paper explored the contribution of the top-down approach, the bottom-up approaches, and a combination of the top-down and bottom-up approaches. The study adopted a descriptive qualitative analysis methodology to establish data from 12 hospitals. The study established that to effectively empower sustained patient safety in a hospital setting a combination of the top-down and bottom-up approach is more effective since the top-down approach does not provide sufficient commitment for sustained patient safety. On the other hand, the bottom –up approach cannot marshal sufficient resources for sustained patient safety. This paper is important to nurses since it provides the best communication strategy to ensure there is sustained patient safety.

Process Best Practices for Reporting and Improving Environmental Safety Issues

Chard, R., & Makary, M. A. (2015). Transfer-of-care communication: nursing best practices. AORN Journal , 102(4), 329-342.

The safe transfer of a patient through effective reporting to the next nursing procedure is important in ensuring optimal nursing care and creation of an environment that fosters safety. This article explores the best practices in transfer of care communication as a patient moves from one care unit to another. The article provides a holistic understanding of the best practices in communication and reporting during the transfer of care so as to ensure optimal safety in the nursing environment. The article is important in understanding how to improve the nursing workplace safety throw adoption of the reporting best practices when handling patients transfer of care practices.

Hewitt, T., Chreim, S., & Forster, A. (2017). Sociocultural factors influencing incident reporting among physicians and nurses: understanding frames underlying self-and peer-reporting practices. Journal of patient safety , 13(3), 129-137.

The article explores the concept of voluntary incidence reporting as an approach towards improving the nursing workplace safety. In nursing practice, there are many behavior reporting frameworks within the profession. Some of the frameworks involve using guiding templates to interpret events. The article explains the relevance of the enablers and inhibitors of peer reporting and self-reporting mechanisms as well as the voluntary incident reporting system. This article is important to nurses as it provides the best practices in incidence reporting hence the development of an environment that is safe and ensures quality patients care.

Soydemir, D., Seren Intepeler, S., & Mert, H. (2017). Barriers to medical error reporting for physicians and nurses. Western journal of nursing research , 39(10), 1348-1363.

Lack of medical error reporting by physicians and nurses has led to high mortality rates among patients. This paper examined the main barriers towards the lack of medical error reporting among physicians and nurses. The paper is a study conducted through an in-depth interview of 23 participants comprised of physicians and nurses. The paper established that the main barriers to error reporting are fear, poor reporting systems, the attitude of the nursing or hospital administration, and individual physicians or nurses perception towards errors. This paper is relevant for the creation of a safe working environment since by elimination the barriers to medical error reporting in the workplace.