Safety Flashcards
A fundamental concern of nurses, which extends from the bedside to the home to the community,
is preventing injuries and assisting the injured.
Major causes of injury and death
Motor vehicle crashes
Falls
Drowning
Fire and burns
Poisoning
Inhalation and ingestion of foreign objects
Firearm use
_ are often caused by human conduct and can be prevented.
Injuries
Factors Affecting Safety
The ability of people to protect themselves from injury is affected by such factors as:
Age and Development
Lifestyle
Mobility and Health Status
Sensory-Perceptual Alterations
Cognitive Awareness
Emotional State
Ability to Communicate
Safety Awareness
Environmental Factors
Lifestyle factors that place people at risk for injury include:
Unsafe work environments,
Residence in neighborhoods with high crime rates,
Access to firearms,
Insufficient income to purchase safety equipment or make necessary repairs,
Access to illicit drugs, which may also be contaminated by harmful additives.
_ are contributing factors in some accidents.
Risk-taking behaviors
Mobility and Health Status
Alterations in mobility related to _, _, _, and _ place clients at risk for injury.
paralysis, muscle weakness, diminished balance, and lack of coordination
Mobility and Health Status
_ impair the client’s ability to perceive discomfort, increasing the risk for injury or skin breakdown.
Spinal cord injuries or paralysis
Mobility and Health Status
Clients who have _ such as hemiplegia or leg casts are prone to falls related to poor balance.
impaired mobility
Mobility and Health Status
Clients weakened by _ or _ may suffer from impaired levels of alertness, placing them at risk for falls or injury.
illness or surgery
Sensory - Perceptual Alterations:
People with impaired touch perception, hearing, taste, smell, and vision are highly susceptible to injury. A person with impaired vision may trip over a toy or not see an electric cord. A person with impaired olfactory sense may not smell burning food or the sulfur aroma of escaping gas.
_ is the ability to perceive environmental stimuli and body reactions and to respond appropriately through thought and action.
Awareness
Cognitive Awareness
Clients with impaired awareness include:
people lacking sleep; people who are unconscious or semiconscious; disoriented people who may not understand where they are or what to do to help themselves; people who perceive stimuli that do not exist; and people whose judgment is altered by disease or medications, such as narcotics, tranquilizers, hypnotics, and sedatives.
Cognitive Awareness
_ clients may momentarily forget where they are, wander from their rooms, misplace personal belongings, and so forth.
Mildly confused
Emotional State
People with _ may think and react to environmental stimuli more slowly than usual.
depression
Ability to Communicate:
Individuals with diminished ability to receive and convey information are at risk for injury. They include clients with aphasia, language barriers, or the ability to read. For example, the person unable to interpret the sign “No smoking-oxygen in use” could cause a fire.
Safety Awareness:
Information is crucial to safety. Clients in unfamiliar environments frequently need specific safety information. Lack of knowledge about unfamiliar equipment, such as oxygen tanks, intravenous tubing, and hot packs, is a potential hazard. Healthy clients need information about water safety, car safety, fire prevention, ways to prevent the ingestion of harmful substances, and many preventive measures related to specific age-related hazards.
Environmental Factors:
Client safety is affected by the health care setting. Depending on the client situation, the nurse may need to assess the environment of the home, workplace, or community. Bioterrorism and natural disasters are national safety concerns.
HEALTH CARE SETTING
In 1999, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released its first publication on client safety and medical errors:
To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System
HEALTH CARE SETTING
This landmark report attracted a great deal of attention when it reported that 98,000 people died in hospitals each year as a result of medical errors, and many more were seriously harmed (Regenstein, 2013).
To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System
1999
IOM
HEALTH CARE SETTING
Since this report (To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System, 1999 by IOM), organizations such as _ and the _ developed and/or continued to accelerate work around patient safety.
The Joint Commission and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)
_ project developed guidelines that would enable future nurses to have the knowledge, skills, and attitudes necessary to improve the quality and safety of the health care systems within which they work (Sammer & James, 2011).
Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN)
HEALTH CARE SETTING
The clear message of the IOM report was that _. IOM recommended that health care organizations create safety systems.
errors were not usually the result of one individual but of a complex system-related problem.
HEALTH CARE SETTING
The Joint Commission created the _ program to help organizations target areas most in need of improvement (Shaw & Miller, 2013, p. 19).
National Patient Safety Goals (NPSGs)
HEALTH CARE SETTING
It is important for health organizations to create an environment in which safety is a top priority; this is also known as providing a _.
“culture of safety”
HEALTH CARE SETTING
The foundation for a culture of safety is _, _, and _. An example is a willingness to share information and learn from errors
a blame-free work environment, transparency, and a process designed to prevent errors.
HEALTH CARE SETTING
AHRQ (n.d.) defines a _ or _ as “an event or situation that did not produce client injury, but only because of chance (para. 2).”
near miss or a close call
HEALTH CARE SETTING
Another IOM report, _, established a link between nurses’ work environment and client safety. This report found that the usual work environment of nurses is characterized by many serious threats to client safety.
Keeping Patients Safe—Transforming the Work Environment of Nurses (2004)
HEALTH CARE SETTING
_ states that health care has one of the highest incidents of occupational injury and illness of any industry in the country and that nurses have among the highest rates of low back disorders (p. 333).
Gerwig (2013)
WORKPLACE:
In the workplace, machinery, industrial belts and pulleys, and chemicals may create danger. Worker fatigue, noise and air pollution, or working at great heights or in subterranean areas may also create occupational hazards. The work environment of the nurse may also be unsafe.
WORKPLACE
_ reports that nursing has many hazards. Some of the hazards identified were exposure to infectious agents; activities in client care that require lifting, bending, and walking; exposure to hazardous compounds; and needlesticks. Nurses must adhere to standardized guidelines to prevent injury or disease.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2012)
HOME:
A safe home requires well-maintained flooring and carpets, a nonskid bathtub or shower surface, handrails, functioning smoke alarms that are strategically placed, and knowledge of fire escape routes. Outdoor areas, where steps or stairs increase the risk for falls, may need ramps instead. Swimming pools need to be safely secured and maintained. Adequate lighting, both inside and out, will minimize the potential for accidents.
COMMUNITY
Adequate street lighting, safe water and sewage treatment, and regulation of sanitation in food buying and handling all contribute to a healthy, hazard-free community. A safe and secure community strives to be free of excess noise, crime, traffic congestion, dilapidated housing, or unprotected creeks and landfills.
“deliberate release of viruses, bacteria, or other germs (agents) used to cause illness or death in people, animals, or plants (para. 1).”
bioterrorism attack
Defined by:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
BIOTERRORISM CATEGORY
• Can be easily spread or transmitted from person to person.
• Result in high death rates and have the potential for major public health impact.
• Might cause public panic and social disruption.
• Require special action for public health preparedness.
Category A agents have the highest risk
BIOTERRORISM CATEGORY
• Are moderately easy to spread.
• Result in moderate illness rates and low death rates.
• Require specific enhancements of CDC’s laboratory capacity and enhanced disease monitoring.
Category B agents are the second highest priority