Conceptual bases of professional nursing

Roles and Responsibilities of Nurses in Improving Quality and Safety

As the healthcare sector focuses on improving quality and safety in healthcare settings, nurses' roles and responsibilities in this course are crucial. Quality and safety efforts in the modern world are creating huge changes in the healthcare industry. Nursing is a crucial component of patient care, hence nurses are important quality and safety drivers in their workplaces.

Healthcare Practitioners and Quality Improvement

At medical institutions, safety and quality improvement are not foreign concepts; in fact, hospitals have long had full-fledged quality improvement departments. A primary role of health care practitioners is to ensure the quality and safety of patient care. In this context, nursing professionals' roles in assuring safety and quality include the following: providing a ward environment that is emotionally, socially and physically fit for the patient's needs, detecting and avoiding medical errors, responding in time to attend to medical emergencies and other patients’ needs, and following federal nursing standards (Hood, 2014). Another role of nursing professionals in improving the quality and safety of patients is ensuring that accurate data is delivered at the right time to the right people in hospital facilities (Hood, 2014).

Encouraging a Culture of Safety

Encouraging a culture of safety is critical in a health care facility. To improve a non-punitive culture of safety in my facility, I would suggest an environment where every player takes action. Safety should not just be a function of a single department, but every unit and personnel in the facility. An environment where people point fingers at others for mistakes is not good for safety. Leaders of the facility should be committed to ensuring the safety of patients. They should allow junior staffs to share safety information openly without fear. If facility leaders are not committed to ensuring safety, employees may not share safety information due to an assumption that no action will be taken. Leaders express commitment to ensuring safety by listening and providing resources.

Importance of Nurses in Ensuring Quality and Safety

Ensuring quality and safety is one of the top priorities for the healthcare organization. Nurses are right at the center of providing quality and ensuring all services are safe for the patients. A culture of safety is also important in ensuring services offered by healthcare organizations are safe.

References

Hood, L. (2014). Leddy & Pepper's conceptual bases of professional nursing (8th ed.). Philadelphia, P.A: Wolters Kluwer Health/ Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.