How Nurses Advocated for High Quality and Safe Patient Care - Essay Example

My experience at the TCU developed my confidence in providing nursing care in a real-world clinical setting and provided me with the opportunity to practice the skills learned in class. Upon reflection, I can say with confidence that I am now more competent in transferring patients, administering oral medications as well as injections, recording patients’ vital signs in the charts provided, and caring for seriously ill patients. Upon closer observation of the inter-professional team, I was able to note how nursing professionals collaborated in the sharing of equipment and also how they helped each other in performing various functions such as transferring and feeding patients, performing physical examinations on sick patients, as well as ensuring that needed therapies were provided on time.

Members of the inter-professional team demonstrated effective communication and teamwork when responding to various patient safety problems with the view to achieving optimal patient care outcomes.  Although most of the nurses I observed in TCU were keen on advocating for high-quality and safe patient care, others seemed unresponsive in their interactions with the patients. For example, I observed that it was common practice for nurses to leave keys in the doorknobs of rooms often used by patients to ensure their safety.

Most nurses also took adequate time to read patient files and chart instructions before administering medications to patients to ensure the right kind of medications and interventions were given to patients. This was a major learning outcome, as I became aware of the importance of relying on details when administering care. However, I observed instances where some nurses administered pills to patients and walked away before the patients could take the drugs. I also observed instances relating to failure to wash hands as often as possible, particularly when nurses were required to transition from one patient to the other.

 As a member of the inter-professional team, I became engaged in advocating for high-quality and safe patient care. For example, I always made sure that my patient received all the nursing care and various interventions indicated in her daily calendar.