Developing a risk-assessment tool to improve patient safety (4 September 2008)

Summary

The Health Protection Agency has suggested that one in ten hospital patients experiences an incident that puts their safety at risk, around half of which could be prevented, and the RCN has identified the need to reduce nurses’ paperwork considerably. This article reports a successful project that set out to tackle these two issues by developing a risk-based nursing assessment system that is simple to use, reduces unnecessary paperwork and reduces the risk of harm to patients.

It outlines how the initiative was introduced, as well as obstacles encountered during the process. The risk-assessment tool received positive feedback from nursing staff as it reduces paperwork while providing a risk-based assessment of care needs.