Overview Of National Patient Safety Goals

Nurses’ primary goals are to promote patient safety and give the best quality of care to the patients. They also play a vital role in preventing and reducing medical errors in their work place. Nurses must be fully aware of the new recommendations and guidelines to follow in the healthcare setting. The Joint Commission established the National Patient Safety Goals (NPSGs) in 2002 (The Joint Commission, 2015). The goal of this program is to assist the health care providers with issues and concerns regarding patient safety and to help solve them. Hospital National Patient Safety Goals include: a) identify patients correctly, b) improve staff communication, c) use medicines safely, d) use alarms safely, e) prevent infection, d) identify patient safety risks, and, e) prevent mistakes in surgery (National Patient Safety Goals, 2016).

Preventing and reducing the risk of healthcare-associated infection is one of the major concern in an in-patient setting. Patients

For central line-associated bloodstream infection, some of the evidenced based preventative measures include: a) hand washing, b) use of maximal barriers protection during catheter insertion, c) the use of chlorhexidine for skin preparation d) removal of catheter when no longer necessary, and e) wipe catheter access ports with alcohol when in use for injection or aspiration (National Guideline Clearinghouse, 2012). Joint Commission and other accredited hospital agencies are working their best to prevent healthcare-associated infections. Poor compliance with infection prevention practices among healthcare workers are common, but it is important that the nurses comply with these practices. Patient safety is the number one goal and we as nurses should keep this in mind when giving care to