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Showing results for tags 'Staff safety'.
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Content ArticleThis report brings together an elected group of experts from across international organisations, G20 Governments, the global health community and civil society to address the challenges that patients and health workers have faced and are currently facing amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. It demonstrates how the safety of patients and health workers is inexorably linked to all global health challenges, including infectious and non-communicable diseases.
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Content ArticleFrom infection control to maintaining safe staffing levels, the COVID-19 pandemic has helped to highlight the intrinsic link between patient safety and staff safety. At the recent Future of Hospitals event from Health Plus Care Online, Helen Hughes, Patient Safety Learning's CEO, Timothy Clark, Founder & CEO of Leader Factor, and Claire Cox, Guys and St Thomas' Hospital, explore this further, considering how ensuring staff safety supports making improvements to patient safety. They consider the essential role that creating a psychologically safe workplace plays in enabling staff to speak up and effectively tackle incidents of unsafe care.
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Content Article
Personal protective equipment is sexist (BMJ Opinion)
PatientSafetyLearning Team posted an article in Staff safety
COVID-19 has highlighted concerns around shortages of personal protective equipment (PPE). Authors of this BMJ Opinion piece argue that in our healthcare system, where 77% of staff are women, PPE does not protect female staff as well as their males colleagues. -
Content ArticleThe COVID-19 pandemic provides a stark reminder of the importance of health worker safety. Inadequate personal protection equipment (PPE) has been a problem in many settings and there have been too many examples of health workers becoming infected and dying from COVID-19.The harsh consequences of inequalities have also been laid bare by the pandemic. In countries such as the UK and USA, a disproportionate number of infections and COVID-19 deaths have occurred among Black and ethnic minority communities and people in the lowest socioeconomic groups. But what the COVID-19 pandemic has also made clear is how dependent patient safety is on health worker safety. It is crucial to highlight that there can be no patient safety without health worker safety. As in previous outbreaks of Ebola virus disease, Middle East respiratory syndrome, and severe acute respiratory syndrome, only when health workers are safe can they keep patients safe and provide health systems with stability and resilience.
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Content Article
It has become imperative that we discuss the issue of mental health in doctors and other healthcare staff. The mental wellbeing of a healthcare staff forms the bedrock of patient safety. It takes a safe and supported person to deliver safe healthcare and we must give this attention as we try to find ways to improve the quality of care within our healthcare systems. Ehi Iden, hub topic lead for Occupational Health and Safety, OSHAfrica, reflects on the increasing workload and pressure healthcare professionals face, the impact this has on patient safety and why we need to start 're-humanising' the workplace. -
Content ArticleThe purpose of wearing a type II fluid resistant surgical mask (FRSM) during surgical and invasive procedures is to minimise the transmission of pathogens in the nose, mouth and throat of staff to patients. They also protect staff from splash or spray of blood/body fluids onto their respiratory mucosa (nose and mouth). A wide range of FFP3 respirators have been used as protection by staff across healthcare settings during the COVID-19 pandemic, including FFP3 respirators with and without exhalation valves. The exhalation valves do not filter exhaled breath, even when of a ‘shrouded’ type. Current infection control guidance states that: “Valved respirators should not be worn by a healthcare worker/operator when sterility directly over the surgical field is required, eg in theatres/surgical settings or when undertaking a sterile procedure”. Powered hoods (also known as powered air purifying respirators or PAPRs) have been provided as respiratory protective equipment (RPE) for staff unable to achieve a tight fit with an FFP3 respirator(s). The air exiting PAPR hoods is not filtered. Incident reports received since March 2020 identified five incidents describing dripping of condensation from the exhalation valve of an FFP3 respirator, potentially compromising the sterile field; one cerebral abscess involving an oral bacterium linked to the use of a valved FFP3 respirator during brain surgery; and three cases of endocarditis linked to PAPR use during cardiac surgery. These incident reports and feedback from services suggest that the risks of valved respirators and PAPRs for surgical and invasive procedures is not well recognised, and that their use may have become routine in some theatre environments.
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In this webinar discussion, an expert panel discusses the airborne nature of Covid-19, the lack of adequate personal protective equipment (PPE) during the pandemic and continued concerns around unsafe PPE guidance and the impact on both staff and patient safety. The panel includes: Helen Hughes: Chief Executive of Patient Safety Learning Dr David Tomlinson: Consultant Cardiologist, NHS Rachael Moses OBE: Consultant Physiotherapist, NHS Hosted by Dr Asad Khan and produced by Gez Medinger. -
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Scientists around the world have warned of the airborne nature of Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic, but how does this impact on patient safety and what can be done to reduce risk? In this long read blog, GP trainee Lindsay Fraser-Moodie, describes how she witnessed the impact of poor ventilation and inadequate PPE on staff and patient safety while working on a hospital ward during the second UK Covid-19 wave. Lindsay describes how her CEO welcomed her concerns, and the changes that were put in place to reduce the risk of hospital acquired transmission. This article includes a comment from her CEO David Carter, who highlights the challenges of the situation and praises Lindsay for her approach to patient safety.- Posted
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Content ArticlePatient safety incidents can have significant effects on both patients and health professionals, including emotional distress and depression. This, published in British Journal of Surgery (BJS) Open, study explores the personal and professional impacts of surgical incidents on operating theatre staff. This study, published in BJS Open, involved 45 face-to-face interviews, with participants including surgeons, anaesthetists, scrub nurses, ODPs and healthcare assistants. The authors state that the results indicate that more support is needed for operating theatre staff involved in surgical incidents. They also suggest that there needs to be greater transparency and better information during the investigation of such incidents for staff.
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Content Article
Sexism in medicine
Patient-Safety-Learning posted an article in Staff safety
This report presents the findings from a survey conducted by the British Medical Association showing that women are disproportionately affected by sexism and gender bias. The report also acknowledges how institutional factors that accompany a medical career are still disadvantaging women. -
Content ArticleThis article discusses how advising and supporting managers/employers in risk management and control is and should have been one of the main preventive roles of occupational health experts, particularly in regards to legal duties on health and safety. In the article, the authors recommend that, as employees have the right to a safe working environment, all appropriate health and safety risk assessments should be carried out, along with published documented input from occupational health experts in addition to gaining employee agreement on Respiratory Protective Equipment (RPE) for aerosol inhalation risk.
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Content ArticleThis article, published in Medical Economics, looks at the Ethical Principles in Health Care (EPiHC), established June 2020. EPiHC serves as a global network of private health care providers, payors and investors committed to ethical conduct. It provides health care organisations with ten clear principles to navigate complex ethical decisions – principles that have never been more critical than in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Content ArticleThis article, published in the BMJ, looks at the declining mental health of staff in ICU during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, based on research by King's College London in 2020.
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Content Article
National Health Executive July/August 2021
Patient-Safety-Learning posted an article in Staff safety
This issue of the National Health Executive magazine features a wide range of timely health topics, including; improving employee mental health and ambulance services, prioritising staff wellbeing, equitable access to Covid-19 vaccines, military style mental health support and more. -
Content Article
How bad “cognitive ergonomics” can drain doctors’ brainpower
Patient-Safety-Learning posted an article in Culture
This article by Tanya Albert Henry discusses poor “cognitive ergonomics” and how the American Medical Association has studied burnout among doctors and is currently addressing issues causing and fuelling physician burnout—including time constraints, technology and regulations—to better understand and reduce the challenges physicians face. -
Content ArticleHealth workers are at the front line of the COVID-19 outbreak response and as such are exposed to different occupational hazards that put them at risk, including exposure to SARS-CoV-2 and other pathogens, violence, heavy workload and prolonged use of personal protective equipment (PPE). This document, produced by WHO, provides specific measures to protect occupational health and safety of health workers and highlights the duties, rights and responsibilities for health and safety at work in the context of COVID-19.
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Content ArticleThis guide, published by WHO, consolidates COVID-19 guidance for human resources for health managers and policy-makers to design, manage and preserve the workforce necessary to manage the COVID-19 pandemic and maintain essential health services. The guide identifies recommendations at individual, management, organisational and system levels.
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Content Article
Creating a safe space: Healthcare worker support toolkit
Becky T posted an article in Staff safety
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This toolkit, produced by the Canadian Patient Safety Institute, is intended to support healthcare leaders and policy makers to develop, implement or improve healthcare worker support models. It includes tools, resources and templates from organisations across the globe who have successfully implemented their own healthcare worker support models, such as peer support programs for healthcare providers. -
Content ArticleThis manuscript provides a comprehensive overview of what healthcare worker support models are available in Canada and internationally. It outlines best practice guidelines, tools and resources that policy makers, accreditation bodies, regulators and healthcare leaders can use to assess the support needs of healthcare workers. The Canadian Peer Support Network is intended as a forum for healthcare organisations seeking guidance in the development of their Peer Support Programs to assist providers who have experienced a patient safety incident. These interventions aim to improve the emotional well-being of healthcare workers and allow them to provide the best and safest care to their patients.
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Content ArticleThis consensus study report (published by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine), builds upon two ground-breaking reports from the past twenty years, 'To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health System' and 'Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century', which both called attention to the issues around patient safety and quality of care. This report explores the extent, consequences and contributing factors of clinician burnout. It provides a framework for a systems approach to clinician burnout and professional well-being, a research agenda to advance clinician well-being, and recommendations for the field.
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Content ArticleThis report produced by the American Medical Association details action steps that can be taken by an organisation before, during and after a crisis to reduce psychosocial trauma among healthcare workers.
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Content ArticleThis resource, published by the AHA Physician Alliance and the American Hospital Association, is a guide for health system leaders developing well-being programmes, focusing on the challenges of burnout due to COVID-19. This resource is in two-parts: COVID-19-specific resources and a guide to walk you through well-being program development and execution. These resources will help leaders build on tools already in place and learn from others who are doing this work.
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Content ArticleThis news account, published by the International Council of Nurses, highlights the mass trauma that COVID-19 has caused among the world's nurses. It details the percentage of nurses experiencing mental health difficulties across the world as a result of the pandemic.
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Content ArticleThis article focuses on the importance of integrating "the workplace, the workforce and the individual" in risk assessments during a pandemic and how it warrants highlighting health and safety laws that require "suitable and sufficient" risk assessment, particularly when workers are involved. The authors also discuss aerosol generating procedures and the risk of exposure to workers from main sources of viral aerosols and the need for appropriate workplace risk assessments to help protect staff.
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Content Article
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This discussion paper, published in The Journal of Patient Safety and Risk Management, explores some of the opportunities which healthcare organisations could embrace to positively influence the effects of power and hierarchy on staff safety. The author concludes: "This exploration into how power and hierarchy influence both staff and patient safety has identified and briefly explored some of the tensions created by misplaced brand loyalty inherent within healthcare institutions, and the legacy of harms resulting."
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