Ensuring a safe health care environment for patients is a critical issue as evidenced by evolving research, public response, and regulatory changes. For nurses at the forefront of health care delivery, the concern for patient safety is a far more immediate and sensitive matter, and the imperative for providing patient safety is an acute priority. Measuring Patient Safety is essential to nurses participating in and leading multidisciplinary safety initiatives by providing the following knowledge and skills:
- A context for safety as a priority
- The means for quantifying the scope of the patient safety problem
- Practical tips, resources, and frameworks from the Plan Do Study Act (PDSA) to create safety projects
- Recommendations on communicating findings
- Examples of successful safety projects
In protecting patients from harm through safety initiatives, nurses can use their expertise and organizational knowledge to directly reduce the risk of injury to patients. Improving patient safety requires nurses to assume leadership roles in measuring and improving the structures, processes, and patient outcomes in the clinical setting. Measuring Patient Safety will enable them to impact patient safety with knowledge and confidence.
Robin Purdy Newhouse, PhD, RN-The Johns Hopkins Hospital
Robin Newhouse, PhD, RN, CNA, CNOR is Nurse Researcher at The Johns Hopkins Hospital where she is accountable for directing the nursing research program in the Department of Nursing and providing expert consultation in advanced research methods and data analysis. She promotes data-based decision making in the Department of Nursing by developing skills of departmental nursing leaders in the management and quantitative analysis of data to guide the research, performance improvement, and patient outcomes management programs. As an Assistant Professor at The Johns Hopkins University School of Nursing, she teaches Managing Clinical Outcomes in the Business of Nursing program.
Stephanie S. Poe, MScN, RN-The Johns Hopkins Hospital
Stephanie S. Poe, MScN, RN, is coordinator for Nursing Clinical Quality at The Johns Hopkins Hospital where she provides leadership in regulatory, performance improvement, safety, evidence-based practice, clinical documentation, and other quality initiatives at both the Department of Nursing and Hospital level. She provides expert consultation in database development and management.