Nursing leaders may be focused on the mounting nursing challenges of the day — nurse-to-patient ratios, shortages, burnout and incidents of violence against caregivers in hospitals — but the one issue that must always be center stage is patient safety.
"One thing we've learned over the last two decades of research and practice is that improving patient safety is a complex, multifaceted problem, which won't be solved by piecemeal, ad hoc initiatives," Lora Sparkman, BSN, RN, wrote in a June 23 nurses.com article. "Instead, moving the needle on patient safety requires a total systems approach and, first and foremost, the creation of a strong culture of safety within an organization."
There are plenty of tried-and-true methods to improve hospital quality, but Ms. Sparkman said the concept of high reliability is gaining popularity and that its time has come. Other industries have looked to high-reliability models for years, but it's only recently began to take hold in healthcare, she said. High reliability focuses attention where it's needed most: on improving patient safety.
"High reliability organizations use systems thinking to evaluate and design for safety, while acutely aware that safety is an imminent, changing threat. New safety risks continuously emerge, uncertainty is everywhere, and no two accidents are the same," Ms. Sparkman said. "Knowing this, high reliability organizations aim to create an environment in which potential problems are anticipated, detected early and virtually always responded to early enough to prevent patient harm."
Find out how high reliability can be promoted through nurse accountability.