Transparency, Disclosure, and Always Events

Always Event refer to the aspect of care and experience which a patient, their family, and caregivers get when they interact with the health care delivery system and health care professionals. The health care workers should have a set of behaviors that make it easy for the patients and caregivers to confide in them, ensure they give the patients improved outcomes and optimal experience, and make the care team staff find meaning in their work ( Institute for Healthcare Improvement for NHS England, 2016) . The events should meet four basic criteria: first, they should be important where the client and people taking care of them know the event is crucial to the improvement of the care experience. They know the event will have a worthy impact when implemented accordingly. Then, they are evidence-based, where the events should contribute to respect and optimal care for patients, their families, and service users. The events should be measurable, which means it should be possible to quantify the behavior accordingly, and they are not just aspirational processes. Lastly, they should be sustainable and affordable without necessarily incurring costs of purchasing new technology or equipment, capital expenditures, or substantial renovations. Therefore, Always Events should encourage the hospital to utilize opportunities for the improvement of the care experience through ensuring they give patients a god experience under their care.

The nurses should disclose the event to their patients because this can help strengthen the relationship and build more trust. Moreover, whether preventable or otherwise, the healthcare worker should acknowledge the responsibility, express sympathy, and discuss with the patient, family, and other care providers on what the team is doing to avoid recurrence of the adverse effects. The nurses should observe and reflect on the process used to explain the adverse impact so that they can work on improving or using it more again in case such an event occurs again.

Reference 

Institute for Healthcare Improvement for NHS England. (2016). Always events toolkit.