An Introduction to Medication Safety

Question 1

Reflect on your own current understanding of what is meant by ‘patient safety’

Answer 1

Patient safety is the avoidance of unintended or unexpected harm to people during the provision of health care.

Question 2

What is safe care of patients is one of?

Answer 2

The single biggest challenges facing
modern healthcare

Question 3

Understanding that safety requires?

Answer 3

Active management, both at the personal level and at a strategic (organisational) level

Question 4

Define ‘safety’ in a systems context

Answer 4

In a systems context, safety refers to the state in which a system is designed, operated, and maintained to minimize the risk of harm, failure, or accidents.

Question 5

Describe what is meant by ‘simple’, ‘complicated’ and ‘complex systems

Answer 5

• Simple systems are straightforward and predictable.
• Complicated systems have many parts but are still predictable with expertise.
• Complex systems involve many interacting parts, making them unpredictable and requiring adaptive management.

Question 6

Define ‘Safety I’ and ‘Safety II’

Answer 6

Safety I can be considered an approach where we try to ensure that “as few things as possible go wrong”, whilst the Safety II perspective focuses on ensuring “as many things as possible go well”