Essay On Patient Safety

Words: 330
Pages: 2

Patient safety is the most critical role for a nurse. A nurse’s ability to take care of patients can be compromised buy an increased nurse-to-patient ratio. Increasing the number of patients to nurse ratio puts patients at risk for safety hazards, morbidity, and death. Another factor that can affect patient safety is the training and nursing skills the nurse has received. A nurse with a higher education has gone through more on the job training then a regular nurse and is more experience to deal with any situation that may come up. Longer shifts, the risk of burning out, and increased stress puts a toll on the nurse and the patient’s safety. Longer shifts affect the nurse’s ability to adapt quickly to the situation at hand. If she keeps working this way she will eventually burn out, increasing her possibility of mistakes, which …show more content…
SBAR, situation background, assessment, recommendation eases this process and has become the policy for transferring patients. Thanks to the dedicated minds that developed this tool, information can be handed off electronically and patient safety can be maintained.
A study about moral sensitivity and moral reasoning was conducted on 506 freshman and 440 senior students in eight BSN programs. After reserving the results, seniors showed a higher level of moral sensitivity scores than freshman students. Ethics was part of every nursing curriculum however every school took a different approach. Six of the schools made ethics a separated course while the other two schools integrated it within its nursing courses. This study shows that moral sensitivity and moral reasoning skills developed over time in the nursing program. These skills are necessary to integrate ethical decision-making skills in patient care, providing quality care to patients and minimizing risk of error to patient