Nurses are often the first provider seen by patients, particularly in the hospital setting. Unfortunately, nurses make mistakes that cause serious harm or death. These mistakes can include failing to properly monitor a patient post-operatively, failing to give necessary medication, failing to prevent a patient from falling, and failing to properly communicate important clinical findings to doctors and other nurses.
Recently, the Department of Health and Human Services issues a report indicating that 29% of patients in rehab hospitals suffered some kind of harm resulting from their care.
We recently posted about issues relating to “travel nurses,” nurses who travel to a hospital in another state to fill in when needed because of
Quality improvement relies on understanding frequency, type, and location of adverse events. Without this knowledge, how can we reduce injuries if we can’t identify when,