"Patient safety has been described as “freedom
from accidental injury” or “the prevention of harm to patients”. Not only
does this focus on establishing health care systems and processes which minimise errors
and adverse events, but it also centres on the professionalism of individual
practitioners. Medical professionalism has been defined as effective communication, ethics
and clinical competence, upon which other attributes like humanism are built. This broad
theme includes research on student learning of patient safety and professionalism within
formal (taught), informal (learnt), and hidden curricula, and includes the exploration of
professional identity formation amongst healthcare students.
"The Patient Safety portfolio includes educating
medical students and health professionals about the context of health care and the role of
complexity. Understanding how poorly designed systems can lead to inadequate care and the
role the system plays in minimising error is necessary if health care professionals are to
reduce adverse events suffered by patients."
"Medicine is practiced in a complex environment, so
there are usually many factors contributing to poor outcomes for patients. Most of these
errors are not caused by people acting recklessly but by badly designed systems of health
care. We know that people are reluctant to talk about adverse events, but if there is no
acknowledgement of them, it is impossible for improvements to be made and learning to
occur."
"Professionalism and ethical conduct are important components in patient safety. In
the health care setting, the term professionalism covers those attitudes and behaviors
that serve to promote and maintain the patient’s best interests. Ethical
behavior is
a mandatory component required by all health professions and employers and covers a range
of attitudes and behaviors. All our patient safety work includes teaching students and
health care professionals about their professional obligations and responsibilities to
patients, their colleagues and the wider community." Associate Professor
Merrilyn Walton, Director of Patient Safety.
Mindfulness (a calm, purposeful, and
reflective presence). “Through humility and continual self-evaluation, mindful
individuals (physicians) become tacitly aware of their own limitations and continually
address these deficiencies through everyday actions-with patients, families, and other
professionals”
Ryff CD, and Singer B. (1996).
"I've come to the realization that
life is not designed for our comfort, or pleasure, but for us to discover our gifts and
contribute what we can to make life better for others."
Dr. Robert Paeglow
"…to know and understand, obviously, is a
dimension of being scientific… to be known and understood is a dimension of caring
and being cared for."
George Engel
National Patient Safety Foundation
The mission of the National Patient Safety Foundation
(NPSF) is to improve measurably patient safety in the delivery of health care by its
efforts to:
- identify and create a core body of knowledge;
- identify pathways to apply the knowledge;
- develop and enhance the culture of receptivity to patient
safety;
- raise public awareness and foster communications about
patient safety; and
- improve the status of the Foundation and its ability to meet
its goals.
Visit the NPSF
Web site for more information about the Foundation, educational opportunities, patient
safety literature, and much more.
You may contact the NPSF at 1120 MASS MoCA Way North Adams,
MA, 01247; phone, (413) 663-8900; fax, (413) 663-8905; or E-mail, info@npsf.org.
Joint
Commission Program on Patient Safety 2009
Summary
In 2009, changes in the
Joint Commission’s Leadership standards become effective with a greater emphasis on
patient safety. The new Leadership standards are organized according to
four pillars which support effective performance: Leadership Structure, Leadership
Relationships, Organization Culture, and Performance and
Operations.
This program will focus on the
four pillars, providing specific content for each, including: getting the board actively
involved in quality and safety activities, organizational structures for patient safety,
communicating leadership’s vision for safety, managing conflict, developing a culture
of safety, and using quality and safety data.
A "Culture" of Patient Safety
Culture (from the Latin cultura stemming from colere,
meaning "to cultivate,")[1] generally refers to
patterns of human activity and the symbolic structures that give such activities
significance and importance. Cultures can be "understood as systems of symbols and
meanings that even their creators contest, that lack fixed boundaries, that are constantly
in flux, and that interact and compete with one another"[2]
Different definitions of "culture" reflect different theoretical bases for
understanding, or criteria for evaluating, human activity.
Culture is manifested in music, literature, lifestyle,
painting and sculpture, theater and film and similar things.[3]
Although some people identify culture in terms of consumption and consumer goods (as in high culture, low culture, folk culture, or
popular
culture),[4] anthropologists understand
"culture" to refer not only to consumption goods, but to the
general processes which produce such goods and give them meaning, and to the social
relationships and practices in which such objects and processes become embedded. For them,
culture thus includes art, science, as well as moral systems.
Wikipedia
