Nurses are responsible for the provision of various forms of healthcare services to patients in different departments and capacities within a health institution. Safety in nursing practice refers to the conduction of nursing duties within consideration of the safety of the nurses themselves and the clients they are serving (Silvestri, O’Malley, & Hemingway, 2015). Safety in nursing practice involves the maintenance of high quality and efficient services while at the same time ensuring of the safety of all individuals and personnel involved in providing for these services (Silvestri, O’Malley, & Hemingway, 2015). as such, nurses being the ones responsible for the providing nursing services are the ones faced with the responsibility of ensuring safety is upheld in nursing practices at all times.
Safety responsibility
Patients safety is the most essential part of nursing practice that ensures all avoidable harm and risk to the clients are avoided (Hood, 2014). In general, ensuring patient safety involves ensuring that patients are able to access the services they require in an effective and timely manner. At the same time, it involves ensuring all forms of avoidable harm such as environmental hazards and procedural errors are avoided at all costs. These are both the responsibility of the nursing staff providing services within an institution. However, the patients and clients also have a responsibility to play in ensuring safety in nursing practice. This includes aspects such as ensuring they know their rights as clients within nursing practice and cooperating within the guidelines of the practice when they are being serviced (Hood, 2014).
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The other parties involved in safety within the institution are the nurses themselves and the other staff within the institution. It is vital that within the conduct of their practice nurses are also able to ensure for their own safety and that of the other staff within the institution. As such, even as nursing staff and practice is being undertaken and ensuring the safety of the patients there is the vital element of need to safeguard themselves against any form of avoidable harm or risks.
Tools and Procedures in safety
In ensuring safety is upheld within the nursing practice, there is the application of standard operating procedures that the nursing staff and other staff within an institution must abide by (Silvestri, O’Malley, & Hemingway, 2015). The standard operating procedures give a clear guideline on the mannerism of actions and procedures nurses are to abide by in their work. It also stipulates on the job descriptions and responsibilities in relations to ethics of conduct within the nursing environment.
The nursing ethical code of conduct and the Hippocratic Oath plays a vital factor in ensuring for safety within the nursing practice. Ethical conduct guidelines ensure that nurses operate professionally within their qualified and acceptable capacities. These form a set of rules that must be abided by every nursing staff. It also included the need to ensure they operate within the standard operating procedures of the institution. The Hippocratic oath serves the purpose of ensuring that all nursing practitioners are under the oath to only do good and help those in need. It is a form of personal and legal pledge that ensures nursing staff are bound to ensure they protect the safety of patients and themselves within their professional nursing practice (Silvestri, O’Malley, & Hemingway, 2015). Furthermore, the oath serves the purpose of affirming the legal responsibility nursing practice holds on safety and the legal consequences that follow in case of not fulfilling their set due diligence.
Conclusion
Safety in nursing practice is of vitality in ensuring efficient and effective service providence to clients within institutions. It is mostly the responsibility of the nursing staff though the clients also hold a responsibility of their own. Tools and procedures such as standard operating procedures, ethical guidelines, and the Hippocratic Oath go a long way in ensuring for safety. Nursing practice is vital to the society and should thus be upheld with professionalism and efficiency.
- Hood, L.J. (2014). Leddy & Pepper’s conceptual bases of professional nursing (8th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
- Hemingway, M. W., O’Malley, C., & Silvestri, S. (2015). Safety Culture and Care: A Program to Prevent Surgical Errors 1.8. AORN Journal, 101(4), 404-415. doi:10.1016/j.aorn.2015.01.002
