Patient Safety Awareness Week is an event that was created to encourage education on healthcare safety, but unless you are in the health care field or a patient or a family member of someone who has experienced medical harm in some capacity, you wouldn’t know about it. Good communication is a significant deterrent to medical errors, but in the hectic health care world, it requires constant diligence from everyone. Patients can look at their relationships with health care providers as partnerships where they should ask questions and clarify instructions until they really understand what the final plan is.
Nurses can give their patients the time to ask questions. Even when it seems like you cannot squeeze one more minute out of the day, spending a few extra minutes to make sure a patient understands the proper medication, the correct dose, and instructions for taking it is essential. She says, “You can ask, ‘Do you have any more questions,’ or ‘Are you comfortable with what we have talked about?’” Some patients are especially easily overwhelmed in a medical setting and might not listen to each and every thing you are saying. Giving one last opportunity to clarify things can prevent mistakes.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), over 2.6 million deaths are due to unsafe care in hospitals in developed and developing countries. Through Patient Safety Awareness Week, the Institute for Health Care Improvement hopes to promote important discussions locally and internationally that will lead to improved healthcare safety for caregivers, patients, and the healthcare systems in general. Patient Safety Awareness Week highlights the role that medical staff and patients need to play to assure overall safety. Patient Safety is not the responsibility of a single individual, but a collective responsibility of healthcare systems, healthcare workers, and patients.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), over 2.6 million deaths are due to unsafe care in hospitals in developed and developing countries. Through Patient Safety Awareness Week, the Institute for Health Care Improvement hopes to promote important discussions locally and internationally that will lead to improved healthcare safety for caregivers, patients, and the healthcare systems in general. Patient Safety Awareness Week highlights the role that medical staff and patients need to play to assure overall safety. Patient Safety is not the responsibility of a single individual, but a collective responsibility of healthcare systems, healthcare workers, and patients.
