Nurses’ Role in National Patient Safety Goals Research Paper

Introduction

The National Patient Safety Goals for the Home Care Program have been created to improve treatment quality and guarantee home care patients’ safety. The program’s goals are as follows (DSSM, 2022):

1. Improving pharmaceutical safety
2. Decreasing the chance of healthcare-associated infections
3. Decreasing the risk of injury to patients due to falls
4. Detecting any possible safety risks within the patient population
5. Nurses will be instrumental in achieving these objectives.

Nurses play an important role in preventing misidentifications by asking for identification and comparing it to the patient’s record. They may also assist in educating patients and their families on the need for precise identification and ensure that appropriate identification processes are followed. Following infection control standards, such as hand cleanliness and utilizing personal protective equipment, and educating patients and their families on the necessity of these measures may lower the incidence of healthcare-associated illnesses. Caregivers may monitor infectious disease symptoms and report any suspicious cases to the proper authorities.

Role of Nurses

It is possible that the prevalence of healthcare-associated ailments can be reduced by adhering to infection control techniques including hand hygiene and the wearing of protective clothing and by educating patients on the need of these measures. They may also check for illness indicators and report any infection cases to the proper authorities. Simultaneously, as nurses improve patient identification and monitoring via electronic health record, their role in preventing wrong medicine prescription and intake will be increased. By evaluating patients’ fall risk, implementing fall prevention methods, and educating patients and their families on the significance of these measures, nurses may assist in minimizing the risk of patient injury arising from falls. They may also monitor patients for indicators of falls and report any incidences to the proper authorities. Nurses may play a significant role in detecting safety hazards in the patient population by performing frequent evaluations and monitoring patients for possible dangers. They may also advise the company on possible safety hazards and assist in adopting plans to minimize such risks.

Telehealth and Nurses

As a whole, nurses are vital to achieving the Home Care Program’s National Patient Safety Goals. They do so by actively contributing to discovering, evaluating, and managing patient safety hazards and delivering excellent care to patients in the home care environment. In addition, introducing innovative care methods, such as telemedicine, may help advance the abovementioned objectives. Because of the evolving healthcare system, the value of nursing interventions is increasing.

The article “Nurses Advancing Telehealth Services” delves into nurses’ contributions to telehealth, or the provision of medical treatment and data through the Internet. Increased access to treatment, better patient outcomes, and lower healthcare costs are just some of the advantages of telehealth discussed in this article (Fathi et al., 2017). Nurses say the authors are well suited to take the lead in healthcare systems’ adoption and integration of telehealth services (Fathi et al., 2017). Fathi et al. (2017) discuss what nurses need to know about things like EHRs, telemedicine, and privacy and security laws to do their jobs effectively in the modern healthcare system. With these abilities, nurses could remove obstacles that prevent the efficient use of IT to provide care.

Conclusion

To conclude, nurses play a crucial part in reaching National Patient Safety Goals by ensuring that patients are properly identified, adhering to infection control measures, adopting fall prevention techniques, performing frequent evaluations, and giving patients high-quality care. This will affect my practice by increasing the importance of the monitoring routines and increasing day-to-day interactions with the EHR system. At the same time, I would like to develop my communication skills to better accommodate the telehealth technologies. Consequently, I would like to see improvement in the patient outcomes and save healthcare costs by learning to these skills.

References

Fathi, J., Modin, H., & Scott, J. (2017). Nurses advancing telehealth services in the era of healthcare reform. OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 22(2). Web.

DSSM. (2022). National Patient Safety Goals® Effective January 2023 for the Home Care Program. The Joint Comission. Web.