Universal implementation of safe patient handling and mobility (SPHM) in all healthcare settings, for all healthcare workers who assist in patient mobility, and for all patients who require assistance with mobility is a goal of practitioners and leaders in the field (Powell-Cope, G., & Rugs, 2015, p. 13). Direct patient care responsibilities are reported as the primary source for musculoskeletal disorders among nursing staff. Back injuries and shoulder strains are major concerns, which both can be extremely debilitating. A variety of tasks are within the plan of nursing care, such as repositioning, lifting, and transferring patients, and, are often performed without assistance (American Nurses, 2013). Patient care, most often related to low
The prevention of falls in the long term care facility is one of the most important interventions the health care team can do to ensure the safety of loved ones under their care. According to the Summary Data of Sentinel Events Reviewed by the Joint Commission (2016), there were 806 falls between 2004-2015 with 95 of those occurring in 2015 . As health care providers, we have a responsibility to incorporate interventions that will help protect the patient while under our care. Interventions as simple as ensuring the use of a gait belt by any team member that transfers the patient, to making sure all team members are aware of the medications that can make certain patients more of a fall risk, will help in the prevention of falls.
Another research made 11 years after the prior research, shows that nearly 60% of all nurses and nursing assistants still suffer injuries in health care environment(“Nurses, assistants most injury prone in healthcare: CDC”, 2015). So what is the solution for this problem that affects more than 100,000 nurses and nursing assistants? Lifting patients is one of the main causes of injuries in the nursing homes. Over all injuries, 17% of them correspond to back injuries. But the use of lift machines itself doesn’t solve the problem. The prior research shows that 60.6% of the CNAs use lift machines, and those that don’t use it complain about the lack of time to do it. Therefore, the facility should decrease the ratio CNA to patient, in order to increase the time that the nursing assistants can spend on each resident. Also, a non-lift policy would prevent the CNAs from trying to lift patients in a quicker way that could potentially harm
The experience have had and learnt is that patient handling and movement works are physically demanding. This is because patients differ in weight, physical disability and also the level of co-operation of the patient. This becomes personal concern
Theis, J.L., & Finkelstein, M.J. (2013). Long-Term Effects of Safe Patient Handling Program on Staff Injuries. Rehabilitation Nursing, 39, 26-35. DOI:10.1002/rnj.108
Working at the hospital for a little over a year now I have seen a few instances that are a "near miss", some a failure, and as of today a complete failure in patient safety but is being overlooked in some ways. Being the most recent and fresh in my mind this incident included a known drug addict, and an order that read "pt. may go outside with family". During shift report I asked the night shift RN why a known drug addict has outdoor privileges, when it is hard enough to get anyone the order to go outside. The RN giving report agreed with me, but since the ordering physician wasn 't available we could not challenge the order overnight. As my shift continued I go into the patients room to check on them and the bed was empty the wheelchair was gone and the bathroom was empty. I asked my Clinical assistant and she said that she was never told the patient was leaving (strike 1: patients need to tell staff when they leave the unit). After 30 minutes I looked in the room and the patient was still gone, after an hour the patient returned with a family member (strike 2: patients are allowed 15 minutes off the floor). I quickly went into the room and asked the patient that if they would like to leave the unit they need to notify staff before they leave and patients need to come back to
In other hand nurses, performing one of their priority duties of maintaining client safety must utilize physical restraints, like side rails, to limit client movement in order to accomplish this task (Butts & Rich, 2015). However, the paternalistic utilization of physical restrictions without patient's educated assent is ethically unjustifiable and is an unequivocal infringement of their independence (Schenker, Fernandez, Sudore, & Schillinger, 2010). The obligation to regard individual autonomy ought to be reached out to an obligation to regard the autonomy of patient who is being controlled. Just along these lines can their human respect, right, and personal satisfaction be improved (Johnstone,
Today it is a requirement of the Joint Commission for all healthcare facilities to have a fall-prevention program in place. Facilities are also required to conduct an ongoing evaluation of the program (Hubbartt, Davis & Kautz, 2013). Most prevention programs include the use of a bed alarm, but can bed alarms alone prevent falls? This paper will investigate the use of a bed alarm being used as the only tool to prevent falls. It is often found that even when a bed alarm is sounded the patient has already fallen before any nursing personal can get into the room. This paper will also investigate the use of other prevention measures that can be used independently or in conjunction with bed alarms to work toward decreasing the number of falls and the related change theory that would work best to implement this change in practice. Nurses are leaders and should always be working to identifying and changing problems that appear to be evident with keeping in mind the best interest of the patient, their families, and the nursing staff.
Safety is a primary concern in the health care environment, but there are still many preventable errors that occur. In fact, a study from ProPublica in 2013 found that between 210,000 and 440,000 patients each year suffer preventable harm in the hospital (Allen, 2013). Safety in the healthcare environment is not only keeping the patient safe, but also the employee. If a nurse does not follow procedure, they could bring harm to themselves, the patient, or both. Although it seems like such a simple topic with a simple solution, there are several components to what safety really entails. Health care professionals must always be cautious to prevent any mishaps to their patients, especially when using machines or lifting objects, as it has a higher
Safety is focused on reducing the chance of harm to staff and patients. The 2016 National Patient Safety Goals for Hospitals includes criteria such as using two forms of identification when caring for a patient to ensure the right patient is being treated, proper hand washing techniques to prevent nosocomial infections and reporting critical information promptly (Joint Commission, 2015). It is important that nurses follow standards and protocols intending to patients to decrease adverse
Vital improvement for patient safety has triggered an enormous amount of positive change in the healthcare system. There were “1.6 million adverse events each year that led to 180,000 deaths” (Liang & Mackey, 2011). In a review, avoidable errors led to $19.5 billion dollars in healthcare expenses (Liang & Mackey, 2011). The National Patient Safety Agency analyzed 425 deaths from acute care hospitals and found “15% of the deaths were related to unrecognized patient deterioration” (Higgins, Maries-Tillot, Quinton, & Richmond, 2008). This finding led to the Institute for Health Care Improvement’s promotion for the use of an early warning scoring system to assist with identifying deteriorating patients (Albert & Huesman, 2011).
An article published by Saunders, 2015 in Journal of Trauma Nursing concluded, “ Using multidisciplinary collaboration and coordination of activities can help ensure that mobility in trauma care becomes a routine
There has been debate on whether or not restraints are safe for patients. Tammelleo (1992) states that the use of restraints cause approximately 200 deaths every year, some of which include instances where a restraint was not necessary for the patient. Misuse is another important factor in the safeness and effectiveness of bed restraints. Misuse and tragic accidents have lead to the involvement of the FDA and recommendation calls that every medical institution must have and practice protocols for proper use of restraints (72). Tammelleo goes on to discuss recommended alternatives that should be explored before resorting to the use of restraints. Restraining patients may seem like the easier and quicker way to handle a patient, it is not always the best. Some alternative measures include wedging pads or pillows against the sides of a wheelchair to keep the patient in a good position, soften lights, provide soft music, spend extra ...
Patient falls is one of the commonest events within the healthcare facilities that affect the safety of the patients. Preventing falls among patients requires various methods. Recognition, evaluation, and preventing of patient falls are great challenges for healthcare workers in providing a safe environment in any healthcare setting. Hospitals have come together to understand the contributing factors of falls, and to decrease their occurrence and resulting injuries or death. Risk of falls among patients is considered as a safety indicator in healthcare institutions due to this. Falls and related injuries have consistently been associated with the quality of nursing care and are included as a nursing-quality indicator monitored by the American Nurses Association, National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators and by the National Quality Forum. (NCBI)
The overall goal for the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) plan is to meet the challenge of educating and preparing future nurses to have the knowledge, skills and attitudes that are essential to frequently progress the quality and safety of the healthcare systems in the continuous improvement of safe practice (QSEN, 2014).Safety reduces the possibility of injury to patients and nurses. It is achieved through system efficiency and individual work performance. Organizations determine which technologies have an effective protocol with efficient practices to support quality and safety care. Guidelines are followed to reduce potential risks of harm to nurses or others. Appropriate policies
Keeping patients safe is essential in today’s health care system, but patient safety events that violate that safety are increasing each year. It was only recently, that the focus on patient safety was reinforced by a report prepared by Institute of medicine (IOM) entitled ” To err is human, building a safer health system”(Wakefield & Iliffe,2002).This report found that approx-imately 44,000 to 98,000 deaths occur each year due to medical errors and that the majority was preventable. Deaths due to medical errors exceed deaths due to many other causes such as like HIV infections, breast cancer and even traffic accidents (Wakefield & Iliffe, 2002). After this IOM reports, President Clinton established quality interagency coordination task force with the help of government agencies. These government agencies are responsible for making health pol-icies regarding patient safety to which every HCO must follow (Schulman & Kim, 2000).