Improving Patient Safety with Evidence-based Research (Term Paper Sample)

Improving Patient Safety with Evidence-Based Research (EBR) [Author's Name] [Institution] Author Note [Include any grant/funding information and a complete correspondence address.] Improving Patient Safety with Evidence-Based Research (EBR) Patient safety is of the utmost importance as a minor mistake can have grave consequences for the patient's health and might even lead to death. One of the most important issues relating to patient safety is the "healthcare-associated infections”. Although many practices are suggested in order to keep the patients safe from such infections, a few people practice and follow these suggestions. This is the biggest reason why many patients get infected during their stay at the hospital. A large percentage of people are prone to errors while they are being taken care of in the hospitals. Studies have shown that anywhere between 3.7% to 16.6% people are affected as a result of errors in health care in United States, Australia and United Kingdom (Brennan et al., 1991). Out of all the people that go to a hospital for healthcare, 1 in every 25 people gets infected during the process. That is a very huge number and that is exactly the reason that healthcare-associated infections(HAIs) are a major issue when it comes to patient safety. Most of the people get affected by HAIs due to negligence in following standard protocols and programs such as hand hygiene and antimicrobial stewardship. As the healthcare professionals are dealing with a number of patients who have different diseases, there exists a possibility that the germs from one patient might infect the others. If all the healthcare professionals especially nurses follow the hand hygiene protocol properly, the number of people that get affected by HAIs can be reduced significantly CITATION Wor09 \l 1033 (World Health Organization, 2009). In order to improve patient safety in healthcare organizations, there are a number of steps that can be taken. If all the healthcare professionals make no compromise on standard safety practices such as hand hygiene, half of all the problems related to patient safety will be solved automatically. In order to ensure that all the professionals follow the standard practices, strict rules and regulations need to be made. Furthermore, the healthcare professionals need to be educated regarding patient safety in hospitals. The education must be learning based so that the professionals can learn from the mistakes of others and in this way, it can be made sure that no mistake is repeated twice. Experience has shown that discussing case studies and learning from them is a great way to avoid the repetition of mistakes. This is a very desirable trait when it comes to patient safety in the hospitals. Many of nurses and other healthcare professionals are overworked as they have to work very long shifts and as a result their efficiency and reliability decreases. This is because with time the fatigue level of the nurses increases and by the end of their shift, they are more likely to commit errors (Kunert et al., 2007). If the hospitals can improve upon the management and ensure that no healthcare professional is overworked or fatigued, many errors including HAIs can be controlled. This is one of the things that can be improved in the current work setting and it will surely show positive results towards patient safety. Of the five essential management practices, one practice that can be utilized to implement the changes that have been discussed in the preceding paragraphs is to balance the tension between production efficiency and reliability. This practice will ensure that nurses and other healthcare professionals are not overworked or fatigued and as a result their reliability will improve. Improved reliability of the healthcare professionals will ensure that there are minimum errors and hence the patient safety in hospitals will improve. If the nurses are fresh and they are not fatigued, it is more likely that they will follow the standard protocols and practices such as hand hygiene (Kunert et al., 2007). If these protocols are followed in a proper manner, the number of people that get affected by HAIs will also decrease which is the target of all the healthcare organizations. Since transformational leadership is all about working with the subordinates as a team so as to identify the areas ...