The specific aim of this commentary is to identify the challenges identified by nurses in the delivery of safe patient care. In reporting, some of the messages emanating from the research and policy literature, the paper highlights the importance of taking a system approach to the investigation of patient safety failures, the conflicting evidence relating to patient deaths as a result of failures in safety, and the underlying importance of culture. The paper outlines the reasons why patient safety has become so prominent, and provides a brief description of some of the definitions and terminology in current use. The commentary articulates a number of challenges in the delivery of safe care as identified by nurses during a recent quality improvement initiative, and these are organized under the themes of organizational context, working environment, and the organization and management of care. In conclusion, the paper describes the implications arising from the quality improvement initiative and the need for further research exploring the nature of safety culture in health-care organizations.
This literature review was conducted to identify the attributes of an expert nurse and the direct and indirect impact they have on patient care, health-care organisations and nursing. Given the loss of expert nursing posts as a result of NHS deficits, there is an urgent need to differentiate between a range of expert nursing roles and how these contribute to positive patient and health outcomes and organisational efficiency. The focus of the literature search was on developments in the UK and the results indicated that ambiguity and confusion exist around the terminology and definitions associated with expert nurses. Research shows that expert nurses have a positive impact on patient care and organisational efficiency. However, a lack of clarity leads to a dilution of expert nursing roles and nurse expertise. There is a need for national guidance on the skills required of expert nurses and the necessity of considering the formal protection of nursing titles.
Sharps injuries are one of the main types of accident sustained by NHS staff. The RCN's Be Sharp Be Safe campaign was launched in 2001 with the aim of reducing sharps injuries and includes a surveillance project to describe the current pattern of sharps injuries being experienced in participating trusts. This article gives an overview of the results from the second year of the surveillance project and indicates how the data can be used to help improve practice. Nurses emerge as the staff group reporting the highest proportion of injuries recorded in the study period. The most common sharps injury scenario involves nurses giving injections in the patient's room or ward area. Aspects of poor disposal practice and incidents involving the recapping of needles continue to result in injuries and are worthy of further investigation. Analysis of the data by location can highlight specific tasks which could be reviewed to identify safer working practices.
Most nurses are aware of the importance of aseptic technique but some may be unsure about applying the technique during urinary catheterisation. This article explains the principles of aseptic techniquue and their application to the procedure of urinary catheterisation.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.