Risk Management and Safety

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Introduction

Quality of care is critical in a hospital; therefore, the risk management system should work on identifying and resolving issues to prevent patients from being injured. This paper will identify an issue, discuss related nurse leader competencies, and propose guidelines.

Inefficiency

Hand hygiene compliance is low, and both staff and patients violate these protocols regularly. Hand hygiene is the most critical measure for the reduction of infection, and thus policies and other personal factors should drive staff and patients to comply.

Explanation of Inefficiency

Hand hygiene is relevant both before and after contact with a patient in order to avoid infecting the patient or being infected. Current staff is not properly educated on the issue, the required infrastructure is not present, and the workflow is not adjusted to accommodate hand sanitization, which results in hospital-acquired infections.

Implications

Hand hygiene is a significant indicator for patient safety because almost 100,000 people die annually because of hospital-acquired infections (Doronina et al., 2017). Infections may travel across different healthcare providers because of patients.

Regulatory Guideline

There are guidelines issued by the CDC and HICPAC that are based on recommendations of WHO. In summary, these guidelines tell that healthcare personnel should wash their hands with soap or use an alcohol-based hand sanitizer.

Expectations of Regulations

Regulations expect that staff wash their hands or use hand sanitizer before and after touching a patient, after contact with blood and other bodily fluids, before performing an aseptic task, when moving between soiled body and clean sites, and after removing gloves.

Variable one Clinical Setting

Soaps and hand sanitizers should be available to all staff and should be placed in such a way so as not to disrupt workflow. In each room, alcohol-based hand rub should be available for both the patients and staff.

Variable 2 in Clinical Setting

Necessary education should be provided for nurses and reminders should be used extensively to reinforce learning. Risks are often underestimated; therefore, nurses need comprehensive education to improve compliance (Doronina et al., 2017).

Variable 3 in Clinical Setting

Administration should provide support and conduct campaigns targeted at improving HH compliance. If necessary, the workflow should be altered to accommodate HH activities. By observing whether the staff is complying and establishing a work culture where HH is critical, healthcare facilities will decrease the number of hospital-acquired infections (Gould et al., 2017).

Quality Improvement Model

Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycles will allow personnel to achieve necessary habits by accomplishing repetitive cycles of short tasks. In addition, it should be noted that emphasis should be put on systemic processes rather than individual compliance.

Application of Quality Improvement

Application of quality improvement measures includes achieving a higher HH compliance and lowering the number of hospital-acquired infections. This change is beneficial for hospital safety and health of both patients and staff.

Nursing Leader Competency I

When applying administrative intervention, it is important for a nurse leader to be communicative. Personnel should understand the reasons behind interventions and their importance. In addition, nurse leaders should be ready to offer information on HH and health implications.

Nursing Leader Competency II

Nurse leaders should also be influential in discussing the issues with both nurses and managers. This competency is vital for establishing the culture of safety. Also, nurse leaders should be able to deliver the messages of nurses on the issues in HH infrastructure or workflow.

Nursing Leader Competency III

Vision and strategy are also critical because a nurse leader should be able to set objectives and propose strategies for achieving those goals. This competency will allow the leader to improve current practices and adjust regulations based on current circumstances.

Conclusion

Hand hygiene is critical for ensuring patient safety and providing clients with quality care. Necessary guidelines should be established to ensure hand hygiene compliance. Personnel should receive training, and all necessary HH materials should be placed accordingly.

References

Doronina, O., Jones, D., Martello, M., Biron, A., & Lavoie-Tremblay, M. (2017). A systematic review on the effectiveness of interventions to improve hand hygiene compliance of nurses in the hospital setting. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 49(2), 143152.

Gould, D. J., Moralejo, D., Drey, N., Chudleigh, J. H., & Taljaard, M. (2017). Interventions to improve hand hygiene compliance in patient care. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 9. Web.

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