Risks that the Nurses Are Constantly Facing - Coursework Example

Running Head: Health Sciences Clinical Risk Management Name Institution date The nurses and the patients are always at risk of getting harmed. In the health sector it is therefore important to give consideration in the ways and measures that are to be put in place to prevent self harm or harm to the patients. For instance a special observation to the psychiatric units reveals a great potentiality of harm. Harm could occur in many ways or forms and therefore there is need for the nurses to be able to identify how they are able to prevent this from occurring. One of the ways in which harm could occur will be through the administration errors of drugs which have already been prescribed for the patients. This would lead to harm of the patient because it could lead to severe drug reactions to the patient and could make the condition of the patient to even detoriate (Allegranzi et al, 2007).to prevent this form of harm, the nurses should be able to always have the information with regard to the administration of the drugs so that they will be able to dispense the right drugs, with the rightful dosages. They should also be able to dispense the drugs while knowing the modes of action, mode of excretion, nature of administration of various drugs as well as the application of the drugs and the various side effects they are able to pose hence this will reduce the harm resulting from administration errors (Wilpert & Fahlbruch, 2002). The other form of harm could be through the use of faulty equipment while delivering health care services as well as lack of adequate knowledge of the use of various equipments and tools. In this case the nurses should be able to have full knowledge on how to use different equipments so as to minimize the risks of harm from the equipments. Each device or equipment should be used for the intended purpose only and also in the right way in order to minimize harm. The other form of harm could result from the inability of the nurses to carry out adequate communication or failing to notify the physicians on time on the changes of the health condition of the patients and this might lead to continued harm. The nurses in this case should be able to embrace effective skills of communication as well as the reasoning skills when disseminating their duties (Misson, 2001). This will enable them to identify the care that the patient deserves as well as being able to communicate with other colleagues. The other source of harm could be due to the inadequate training or performing of tasks that a nurse knows very well that he or she is not competent to perform and fails to know the self limitations hence this could lead to harming of the patients as well as the nurse. This could be prevented by ensuring that the nurses carry out several practicals in order to familiarize themselves with various services so that they are able to offer services properly when allowed to disseminate the services on their own to the patients (Johnstone & Kanitsaki, 2006). I found the whole activity to be a very good learning process since I was able to identify how various forms of self as well as patient harm could arise within a health care set up. I was able to also identify the two forms of harm which include self harm and secondly the harm to the client or patient. Self harm will relate to the nurses and how they are able to inflict harm to themselves in the line of duty whereas patient harm arises when the nurses inflict or cause harm to the patients (Young et al, 2002). I was also able to identify the various forms of risks that contribute to self harm as well as the patient harm. This included the risks that the patients and the nurses are exposed to. I was also able to identify the essence of clinical risk management in the health care system (Vincent, 2006). The clinical risk management comes to find its application through the identification of various risk factors that the patients and the nurses are exposed to and being able to find solutions or preventive measures that will help to avoid harm. For instances the risks for the nurses would be managed through immunization and ensuring that the working environment is safe and meets the up to date quality assurance standards hence this will prevent them from contracting infection which will cause harm to them (David Bowden, 2007). I was able to identify the various forms of risks that the nurses that the nurses are constantly facing and this enabled me to identify the various skills with which the nurses are able to prevent harm being inflicted on them or the patients when they use the skills while disseminating their services. The use of the skills will bring down the number of cases that could have undergone self and patient harm. This made me to understand the essence of the safety lessons as well as the skills in the prevention of self and patient harm (Johnstone & Kanitsaki, 2006). The activity had a great contribution to my knowledge as well as skills in that i was able to gain more skills as well as knowledge in the management of various risk to harm. The skills which i noted to be vital in the daily practice include the reasoning skills, communication skills, and practical skills among others. The gaining of the skills will enable me to be able to offer health services with absolute care, proficiency as well having due consideration about all possible outcomes to prevent harming myself as well as the patient (Milligan, 2006). I was able to realize my leaning needs at the end of the activity because I was able to identify the various forms of risks the nurses and the patients are exposed to in a health care set up and the various ways with which the nurses could bring or inflict harm to the patients. In addition, i was also able to identify the various ways of measures which the nurses are able to put in place so as to prevent harm to self harm as well as harm to the patients (Walshe, 2001).I was also able to identify various forms of safety lessons for instance being able to realize that each tool and equipment should be used in serving the right purpose, in the right way and with the right person with the knowledge of the equipment or tool in order to prevent harm. I was able also to identify the importance of clinical reasoning, communication and practical skills in the prevention of self harm as well as harm to the patients (David Bowden, 2007). Achievements of these standards or elements will go a long way to enable my delivery of services with absolute consideration being given to prevention of self and patient harm. These standards and elements will be realized through the identification of various ways through which harm could arise and therefore being able to mitigate them. Those who will have already been harmed will be attended to whereas the individuals who have not been harmed should be prevented from getting harmed. The services will be able to offer in the future will now be streamlined towards the prevention of self harm and harm to the patients (Milligan, 2006). In my delivery of services, i will ensure that my practice is of quality and of value to the patient and this will be achieved through the maintenance of my practice to be current as well as ensuring that I am up to date with various pertinent information regarding to clinical risk management (Vincent, 2008). I will also go ahead to incorporate the safety lessons in my practice for this will enable me to carry out my duties with great care and consideration which will result in the prevention of self and patient harm. Attending to various patients with different conditions will also enable me to build on my experience hence this will enable me to disseminate quality care and also care that is directed at preventing self and patient harm due to quality as well as effectiveness of service being offered (Milligan, 2006). In conclusion, self and patient harm prevention is very vital in the health care set up and this makes clinical management of risks to be of importance. It is therefore important to put emphasis on the skills and safety lessons that will be necessary in the prevention of harm. This skills and safety measure will enable the creation of the culture of safety within the health service delivery (Longo, 2005). This measures will enable the nurses to provide guidance, support to the health care team, direction and leadership where colleagues get stuck in the delivery of services or produces for this will ensure that at the end the patient and the nurses are free prevented from harm. The nurses should be able to incorporate the risk management activities in their daily service in order to prevent harm. The nurses should also be keen to ensure that the patients do not inflict harm on themselves as this might worsen their health conditions (Davis et al, 2010). Nurses should also be keen on their well being and they should therefore endeavor to protect themselves from being harmed in their line of duty and it is for this reason that all the nurses should have the safety lessons undertaken and the skills gotten practiced in their daily nursing activities. In this scenario, the nurses will be able to adopt various strategies to prevent harm to themselves as well as strategies of dealing with harm when it occurs. They should also be able to formulate and come up with various solutions and strategies that will be used to prevent the occurrence of self and patient harm (Bowden, 2007). 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