Search the hub
Showing results for tags 'USA'.
Found 657 results
-
Content ArticleMany nurses also act as family caregivers, and this study in the journal Nursing Outlook aimed to examine the impact of family caregiving on nurses, their colleagues and the organisations they work for. Nurse caregivers and healthcare organisation leaders completed two surveys about views on family caregiving. The authors found that healthcare leaders perceived family caregiving to have a larger impact on the nurses’ health and work performance than nurses themselves. Family caregiving was also identified as a potential contributor to burnout, and the authors highlight that lack of workplace support for family caregiving may influence nurses decisions about leaving or reducing their role.
-
Content ArticleA toxic organisational culture has been shown to contribute more to staff leaving and reporting ill health, than pay and other factors. In this blog, Brandi Neal, Director of Content Creation & Marketing at the consultancy Radical Candor, looks at three traits of a toxic company culture: obnoxious aggression, ruinous empathy and manipulative insincerity. She highlights the value of the radical candor approach, which involves caring personally for staff while challenging them directly, and building genuine relationships with your team,
-
Content ArticleWhile many physicians may avoid discussing the subject, a study showed that who gets addressed with the honorific “Dr.” may depend on gender, degree and specialty.
-
Content ArticleThis article by Carrie Murphy looks at the practice of inserting a 'husband stich' or 'daddy stitch', where midwives or obstetricians make an unnecessary extra stitch when repairing episiotomies or tearing from birth. The belief is that it will make the vaginal opening tighter and therefore increase pleasure for the woman's sexual partner. The author highlights that this is a real practice that has been carried out on women for many years, and describes the ongoing impact it can have on women affected, many of whom don't realise they have been given too many stitches. This misogynistic and unethical practice can cause additional pain for women during sex. The women featured in this article state that they did not consent to the practice, being vulnerable after childbirth and in many cases unaware of what a 'husband stitch' was. Angela Sanford reports only finding out that she had a 'husband stitch' five years after birth at a cervical screening appointment where the nurse expressed concern. Murphy expresses her concern that the practice may still be carried out without women's consent, leaving them feeling violated and in pain.
-
Content ArticleSince 2018, Nicola Burgess has led a team from Warwick Business School that evaluated the partnership between the English NHS and the Virginia Mason Institute in the USA. The partnership aimed to implement a systematic approach to quality improvement (QI) in five English NHS trusts and learn lessons about how to foster a culture of continuous improvement across the wider health and care system. In this blog, she summarises six key lessons from the evaluation report for health and care leaders looking to build a systematic approach to QI. Build cultural readiness as the foundation for better QI outcomes Embed QI routines and practices into everyday practice Leaders show the way and light the path for others Relationships aren’t a priority, they’re a prerequisite Holding each other to account for behaviours, not just outcomes The rule of the golden thread: not all improvement matters in the same way
-
Content ArticleDr Anthony Fauci, America’s top infectious disease expert, has warned against prematurely declaring victory over the pandemic, not only due to short-term needs but because long Covid represents an “insidious” public health emergency for millions of people. In an interview with the Guardian, Fauci urged US Congress to avoid complacency and resume funding to combat the virus as well as Long Covid, a chronic and prolonged illness that continues to elude scientists and healthcare providers.
-
Content ArticleThe workforce is healthcare’s most precious resource. Hospitals and health systems are committed to supporting mental well-being and improving access to behavioural health screenings, referrals and treatment when the workforce needs it. This new American Hosptial Association guide, Suicide Prevention: Evidence-Informed Interventions for the Health Care Workforce, identifies three drivers of suicide: stigma, limited access to behavioural health resources and treatment, and job-related stressors. The guide offers a curated list of 12 evidence-informed interventions that hospitals and health systems can implement to reduce the risk of suicide among healthcare workers. Hospitals and health systems should choose the interventions and metrics that work for their organisation based on their own needs and available resources to customise a pathway to suicide prevention for their employees.
-
Content ArticleNursing education has long utilised simulation in different forms to teach the principles and skills of nursing care, from anatomical models to computer-based learning. This chapter from Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses looks at simulation training as a strategy to prevent healthcare errors. It explores the value of human patient simulation in nursing education programs.
-
Content ArticleThis article in The Atlantic by Adam Gaffney, a doctor who works in both primary and secondary care, looks at the difficulty of defining and estimating the number of people living with Long Covid. The condition presents in a variety of different ways in people who were hospitalised with Covid-19, as well as people who had mild illness. He argues that incomplete and limited perspectives on what Long Covid is or isn’t, limits people's understanding of who is suffering and why, and of what we can do to improve the lives of people with the condition. More research is needed to understand the mechanisms involved in varied presentations of Long Covid.
-
Content ArticleThe last 10 years have seen substantial growth in medical devices that can help people with diabetes to manage their condition, including the development of automated insulin delivery (AID) systems. Regulatory approval has been granted for the first AID systems, and a community of people living with type 1 diabetes has created its own systems using a do-it-yourself approach. This consensus report from the Joint Diabetes Technology Working Group of the European Association for the Study of Diabetes and the American Diabetes Association offers a review of the current landscape of AID systems and recommends targeted actions.
-
Content ArticleThese resource lists compiled by US insurance company MedPro Group, highlight a number of expert and evidence-based sources that can be used to increase awareness of safety issues, identify areas of risk and determine mitigation strategies. They cover a wide range of healthcare safety topics: Advanced practice providers Anaesthesia and surgery Artificial Intelligence Bed safety and entrapment in senior care Behavioural health Behavioural health in senior care Burnout in healthcare Culture of safety Cybersecurity Disclosure of unanticipated outcomes Disruptive behaviour Elder abuse Electronic Health Records Emergency medical Treatment and Labour Act Emergency preparedness and response Emergency preparedness and response in senior care organisations Ergonomics and safe patient handling Falls and fall risk in older adults Handoffs and care transitions Health equity and social determinants of health Health literacy and cultural competence Healthcare-associated infections Healthcare compliance HIPAA Human trafficking and trauma-informed care Infection prevention and control in ambulatory care settings Infection prevention and control in dentistry Infection prevention and control in senior care organisations Informed consent LGBT+-inclusive care Maternal morbidity and mortality Medical marijuana Medication safety during care transitions Obstetrics and gynaecology Opioid prescribing and pain management Patient engagement Pressure injuries in older adults Sepsis Social media in healthcare Staff shortages and workforce issues Suicide screening in primary care Telehealth/telemedicine Violence prevention in home healthcare Violence prevention in the Emergency Department Wrong-site procedures
-
Content ArticleThe variety of alarms from all types of medical devices has increased from 6 to 40 in the last three decades, with today’s most critically ill patients experiencing as many as 45 alarms per hour. Alarm fatigue has been identified as a critical safety issue for clinical staff that can lead to potentially dangerous delays or non-response to actionable alarms, resulting in serious patient injury and death. To date, most research on medical device alarms has focused on the nonactionable alarms of physiological monitoring devices. While there have been some reports in the literature related to drug library alerts during the infusion pump programming sequence, research related to the types and frequencies of actionable infusion pump alarms remains largely unexplored.
-
Content ArticleLearning from mistakes generally is considered the upside to failure. But in healthcare, where staff members regularly face stressors and systemic issues that impede a strong culture of safety, creating that standard can be difficult. To understand why medical mistakes and care complications occur repeatedly Becker's spoke with Patricia McGaffigan, vice president of safety programmes for the Institute for Healthcare Improvement. Ms. McGaffigan outlined three factors that contribute to repeat medical errors, care complications or lost progress on quality improvement initiatives: A "whack-a-mole" approach to safety. Lack of focus on systemwide changes. Unhealthy or unsafe work environments.
-
Content ArticlePatient safety in ambulatory care settings is receiving increased attention. Based on interviews and focus groups with patients, providers, and staff at ten patient-centered medical homes, this qualitative study explored perceived facilitators and barriers to improving safety in ambulatory care. Participants identified several safety issues, including communication failures and challenges with medication reconciliation, and noted the importance of health information systems and dedicated resources to advance patient safety. Patients also emphasised the importance of engagement in developing safety solutions.
-
Content ArticleSepsis is the leading killer of infants and children worldwide and kills more than 250,000 Americans each year. On 1 April 2012, 12-year-old Rory Staunton died from sepsis after grazing his arm while playing basketball at school. This account by Rory's parents Orlaith and Ciaran Staunton describes the multiple errors by the school and different healthcare professionals that led to their son's death - from the wound not being cleaned by the school, to Rory's paediatrician missing key sepsis warning signs and the ER's failure to read Rory's blood test results that showed he was seriously ill. The article also includes a link to a short video where Orlaith and Ciaran describe what happened to Rory.
-
Content ArticleHealth information technology (health IT) has potential to improve patient safety, but its implementation and use has had unintended consequences and has raised new safety concerns. This viewpoint article in BMJ Quality & Safety introduces a new framework—the health IT safety (HITS) framework—to provide a conceptual foundation for health IT-related patient safety measurement, monitoring and improvement.
-
Content ArticlePoor communication among healthcare professionals contributes to widespread barriers to patient safety. The word “communication” means to share or make common. In research literature, two communication paradigms dominate: communication as a transactional process responsible for information exchange communication as a transformational process responsible for causing change. Implementation science has focused on information exchange attributes while largely ignoring transformational attributes of communication. This article in the journal Implementation Science debates the merits of encompassing both approaches.
-
Content ArticleThe US President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) consists of individuals from sectors outside of the US Federal Government who advise the President on policy matters where the understanding of science, technology and innovation is key. This is the recording of a live-streamed meeting of PCAST, where invited speakers presented opportunities to advance scientific innovation, including improving patient safety.
-
Content ArticleIn this blog for Psychology Today, Gary Klein looks at the psychological causes of diagnostic errors, arguing that being clear about the exact causes of these errors is the only way to reduce them. Drawing on physical causes of diagnostic error identified in an Institute of Medicine report in 2015, he highlights the need to go further in understanding the explanations the report offers for diagnostic errors.
-
Content ArticleThe Resilient Surgeon is a podcast by The Society of Thoracic Surgeons in the US. In this episode, Dr Michael Maddaus interviews Dr Amy Edmondson, a scholar of leadership, teamwork and organisational learning. Dr Edmondson defines psychological safety as a belief that one will not be punished or humiliated for speaking up with ideas, questions, concerns or mistakes. It makes a team a safe place for interpersonal risk-taking. In this podcast, she explains how psychological safety is the key to unlocking high quality conversations that result in improved team outcomes.
-
Content ArticleDr Donna Prosser, Chief Clinical Officer at the Patient Safety Movement Foundation, interviews Robyn Begley, Chief Executive Officer, American Organization for Nursing Leadership (AONL), and Senior Vice President and Chief Nursing Officer, AHA, around her most recent discoveries in the COVID-19 pandemic. The team conducted a study with over 1,800 participants, ranging from nursing staff to hospital administrators, on the effects of COVID-19 and the challenges and fallbacks that occurred during three periods of the pandemic. After discussion of results, recommendations are proposed for supporting hospitals and healthcare workers.
-
Content ArticleThe purpose of the US Joint Commission's National Patient Safety Goals is to improve patient safety. The goals focus on problems in healthcare safety in the USA and how to solve them. They include identifying patients correctly, improving staff communication, use medicine safely, use alarms safely, prevent infection, identify patient safety risks and prevent mistakes in surgery.
-
Content ArticleAs patients and families impacted by harm, we imagine progressive approaches in responding to patient safety incidents – focused on restoring health and repairing trust. We can change how we respond to healthcare harm by shifting the focus away from what happened, towards who has been affected and in what way. This is your opportunity to hear about innovative approaches in Canada, New Zealand, and the United States that appreciate these human impacts. This interactive webinar was hosted by Patients for Patient Safety Canada, the patient-led program of the Canadian Patient Safety Institute and the Canadian arm of the World Health Organization Patients for Patient Safety Global Network. View the webinar on demand and download the slides.
-
Content ArticleThe US National Quality Forum (NQF) convened a multistakeholder committee to identify recommendations for the practical application of the Diagnostic Process and Outcomes domain of the 2017 Diagnostic Quality and Safety Measurement Framework, measuring and reducing diagnostic error, and measuring and improving patient safety. This report outlines the recommendations through a series of four Use Cases – missed subtle clinical findings (Use Case 1), communication failures (Use Case 2), information overload (Use Case 3), and dismissed patients (Use Case 4) – that depict resolutions to specific types of diagnostic errors, and broad-scope, comprehensive recommendations with applications to multiple populations and settings.
-
Content ArticleAppalling racial inequities in health exist in nearly every realm that researchers have examined. These inequities are a dramatic manifestation of the structural violence that plagues our society. Deborah Cohan, an obstetrician, gives her perspective on this in her article in the New England Journal of Medicine. "How am I confronting the underlying forces that facilitate increased suffering and death among certain groups because of their skin color? Although it’s necessary, it is not enough for me to provide respectful health care to pregnant women of color. If I truly want to be part of the solution, I need to explore those parts of me that are most unwholesome, embarrassing, unflattering, and generally not discussed in the context of one’s career." Her goal is to dismantle the insidious thoughts that reinforce a hierarchy based on race, education, and other markers of privilege that separate her from others. "These thoughts, fed by implicit bias, are more common than I find easy to admit. Although I know not to believe everything I think, I also know that thoughts guide attention, and attention guides actions. Until I bring to light and hold myself accountable for my own racist tendencies, I am contributing to racism in health care."
