Patient Safety Essay

620 Words3 Pages

SAFETY IN THE NURSING PROFESSION It is the belief of many medical professionals that proper safety protocols in the medical environment is paramount. There is nothing more important in a hospital setting than overall safety. This goes for both patient safety as well as the safety of the hospital staff. Both patient and staff have their own precautions that must be taken and steps that must be followed to ensure there are no mishaps. Improper patient safety has been an issue plaguing the medical industry since day one. It’s extremely important that we medical professionals follow the protocols that are put in place. Safety covers proper hygiene, from washing your hands before and after handling patients to prevent infection and spread of disease, …show more content…

We need to be certain that nurses are well rested and 100 percent at the start of their shifts, lives literally depend on it. Overworking anyone tends to result in poor performance, such as “When hospital nurses are given too many patients to care for, the patients have a much greater risk of dying. Adding a single patient to a nurse’s caseload seems to increase the risk of dying within 30 days by 7 percent.” (Fabre, J. M. R. (2009). Smart Nursing: Nurse Retention & Patient Safety Improvement Strategies, Second Edition (2). New York, US: Springer Publishing Company). That quote sheds some light on the subject. A seven percent increase in the likelihood of a patient’s death due to not having enough nurses is simply a terrible and avoidable thing. I can only imagine the things that go unnoticed daily because nurses are over worked or a hospital is …show more content…

It’s everyone’s job to follow basic safety guidelines and it’s our job as nurses to hold ourselves and others accountable. We must continue push the envelope in medicine, but we need to ensure that we don’t sacrifice safety in the process. References Fabre, J. M. R. (2009). Smart Nursing: Nurse Retention & Patient Safety Improvement Strategies, Second Edition (2). New York, US: Springer Publishing Company. Retrieved from http://www.ebrary.com.proxy.chamberlain.edu:8080 Sharps Safety for Healthcare Settings. (2015, February 11). Retrieved May 31, 2017, from