Building a Culture of Safety

1.  What did I expect to learn about this topic before beginning the unit?
Safety is such an important aspect of healthcare. I was hoping to learn about how to build that culture of safety and what I can do as an RN to promote safety in all aspects of care not only for my patients but for myself as well.

2.   What I actually learned:

       The discussion this week was great! I hope I am never in that situation that RN was in with a nurse to patient ratio of 32:1. I realize that this does happen and it needs to stop. This is not creating a safe environment for staff or for the patients. Intermountain is focusing a lot on zero harm. A situation like this is not in line with the zero harm initiative in any way. I feel the need to stand up for myself and the patients and talk with a manager and/or supervisor about any situation that is compromising safety. Safety should be the number one priority.

       With the critical thinking exercise I was able to reflect on the values of Intermountain healthcare and examine the facility and its employees and how compliant the employees are to the values. I agree and love the values intermountain strives to uphold.  I do see employees with these values and find it to be a wonderful place to work. I will continue to strive to have these values as well because I know that because of their mission, vision, and values, Intermountain has become a highly reliable facility. A highly reliable facility also becomes a safe facility. That is and should be a main focus for all facilities to have.

       The case study this week was complex and had many different aspects to think about but it was very interesting to analyze the situation. It is so unfortunate that a young boy had to lose his life for people to realize a break in the system. But I am so glad to have people that are willing to let us learn from mistakes and help better the system rather than just seeking revenge. Reflecting on this scenario really made me realize how important it is for me to really know my stuff and to now be afraid to speak up, no matter what!  I hope I am never involved in a lawsuit or anything like this but reality is I might be. I hope I can always remember this and always document fully, communicate with my team and especially the doctors, and not always rely on the “system” to be my second check. It is not bad to question things sometimes and seek clarification.

3.  My feelings/experiences from the individual and team activities:

      Like I said, I really liked the case study and the fact that I was able to read and learn about a real event and reflect on it. The discussion was a good topic as well because I know this happens and we may be faced with unethical situations like the one in the scenario and it is good for us to talk with each other and decide what we should do about it and who we should talk to fix it.

4. How I will utilize the information learned in my nursing practice:

      Like I have mentioned before, I want to make sure I am communicating with doctors and other nurses regarding my patients and their care so we are all on the same page with what is going on. I want to help create that safe and reliable environment for not only the patients but for myself and my fellow coworkers.

5. My personal feelings about the material covered:

I think safety is a great topic to discuss and I liked the direction we went with it this week with the case study and looking at working conditions for staff and how that affects the patients. I also thought it was important to look up the values of institutions and see how those values really affect the reliability of an institution in analyzing if the employees actually uphold those values.