Monday, November 3, 2003

This presentation is part of : Cultivating Discoveries in Patient Safety

Patient Safety: An Innovative Model

Patricia Petryshen, RN, PhD1, Dyanne Affonso, RN, PhD2, Diane Doran, PhD2, Mary Ferguson-Pare, RN, PhD3, Leslie Vincent, RN, MScA4, Joy Richards, RN, MN5, Mary Jo Haddad, RN, MHSc6, and Karima Velji, RN7. (1) St. Michael's Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada, (2) Faculty of Nursing, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, (3) University Health Network, Toronto, ON, Canada, (4) Mount Sinai Hospital, Toronto, ON, Canada, (5) Baycrest Centre for Geriatric Care, Toronto, ON, Canada, (6) Hospital for Sick Children, Toronto, ON, Canada, (7) Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, Toronto, ON, Canada

Objectives. This presentation will discuss an innovative undertaking that provides the forum to advance discoveries in Patient Safety through a partnership with a large, research-intensive University and some of its affiliated teaching hospitals.

Concepts. With Patient Safety emerging as a health care concern, a call for nursing scholarship is needed to move beyond current foci of reducing errors, managing risks, and preventing injuries. A new vision of Patient Safety is vital if we are to build safer health care systems with greater attention to the processes of care. A conceptual framework to cultivate discoveries in Patient Safety is proposed as a means to create synergy for innovations in research, practice and education. One of the goals of the university-practice setting partnership is to transform current clinical teaching-learning environments based on research findings. This guiding principle is in accordance with the Institute of Medicine’s recommendation that “those who work together must train and be educated together” (IOM, 2000).

Methods. The university and hospital partnerships are designed to ensure that patient safety research is clinically relevant and reflects the priorities of the practice settings. Furthermore this innovative research partnership will transform the organizational cultures through specific action steps that include the development of dedicated clinical teaching units where processes of care are redesigned to promote safety and where the practice settings serve as laboratories for knowledge transfer.

Results. Partnerships have been established between the University and six affiliated teaching hospitals. The chief nurse executive from each of these sites have collaborated with university researchers to develop a study to improve the reporting of and opportunities to learn from near misses.

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