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Learning Objective 1: The Learner will be able to discuss proactive approaches to creating a positive safety culture.
Learning Objective 2: The learner will be able to state the importance of interdisciplinary team learning in patient safety
Creating a safety culture has been identified as a key characteristic of organizations that value and promote patient safety. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the effects of a unit-specific safety program on safety performance in an interdisciplinary care team. It is our intention to prove that a unit-based interdisciplinary education program will increase staff awareness of the importance of near miss and adverse event reporting. This increased awareness will lead to increased communication and event visibility, which will ultimately lead to improvements in patient safety
Methods
A NICU specific program was designed to introduce our team members (175 nurses, 15 Respiratory therapists, 14 neonatologists, 20 NNPs, and 6 NICU-based Pharmacists) to the importance of event reporting and its contribution to patient safety. We evaluated its feasibility, and used it to teach broad safety and quality principles, proper responses to error, methods of collaboration and communication, and how each member plays a role in carrying out the organization's safety plan through specific job-related aspects of safety.
Results
The implemented interventions have been successful and have resulted in a significant increase in the number of events being reported, team participation in report reviews, enhanced awareness of events, increased critical thinking abilities, and active participation in practice decisions.
Conclusion
The challenge is to make it easy to do the right thing and hard to do the wrong thing. Frontline team members are key components of patient safety and provide the expertise and knowledge needed to improve patient safety. Simply improving knowledge does not necessarily improve practice. Rather, organizations must invest in the tools and skills needed to create a culture of evidenced-based patient safety practices where questions are encouraged and systems are created to make it easy to do the right thing.