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Asked by MinisterWorldMantis30

1. Provide feedback on my classmate’s work.

The safety competency I have identified is to check the patients’ allergies. In our unit, there are many patients with varying degrees of allergies to food, medications, and materials such as latex. Nurses are informed about the patient’s allergy status from two sources; the allergy section on the patient’s chart, and the allergy warning wristband the patient is wearing. Nurses check and make a note about the patient’s allergy first thing during the shift change. Then they check the allergy band throughout the day before they care for the patient. However, in an extremely busy unit, it is possible for nurses to miss the allergy bands on patients’ wrists or even forget to check the band. Failing to check the allergy status of a patient can happen more often when another nurse is covering for the primary nurse during their breaks. Since allergic reactions can be quite serious and life-threatening, the threshold for this competency should be very low. The threshold should be less than two allergy-related incidents per month.

 

2.     I think identifying and recording patients’ allergies and putting an allergy warning wristband on patients’ wrists are great ways to prevent mistakes involving allergies and to ensure patient safety. However, one more layer of precaution could be added to the allergy safety protocol. I would suggest putting up visible allergy signs on patients’ beds or on the door, so it is more noticeable and obvious than a small wristband. That way, all the staff in the unit can easily identify patients’ allergy status, hence lowering incidents of missed allergies.

·       I would measure Nurse-Sensitive Outcomes to evaluate the effectiveness of these changes. Nurse-sensitive outcomes tell you how effective the changes were and how they improved patient safety standards (Potter et al., 2018). In this case, we can count the number of medication errors related to allergies and other allergy-related incident reports created before and after the change to see if the change has met the threshold and to evaluate if the change made has been effective in preventing the allergy-related mistakes.

 

3.     My action plan to make this change possible is to advocate for patient safety and to communicate with the managers and other policymakers to suggest putting up more visible patient allergy signs on patients’ bedsides. I would suggest trial runs and compare the results before and after the change. I would communicate with the leadership team to see if the change lowered the number of unsafe incidents involving patient allergies.

 

4.     In summary, here is the outline of my plan (based on The Safety Competencies in Box 11-11 from potter et al., 2018).

 

·       Raise awareness of the health care errors involving missed patient’s allergy status and promote a systems approach to care and safety.

·       Role modelling and demonstration of a commitment by bringing the issue to the managing team and suggesting putting up visible allergy signs near the patient.

·       Evaluating the nurse-sensitive outcome of the changes made by comparing the number of adverse incidents before and after the change and by identifying if the threshold is met after the change.

·       Taking feedback from the nurses and other staff about their experience with the change through continuous communication.

·       Integrate this change into daily practice, and continuously monitor the effectiveness of the changed policy in terms of improving patient safety and the quality practice environment.

SCIENCE
HEALTH SCIENCE
NURSING
HLTH 3611

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