Kathleen M. Krawzak, RNC-NIC, BSN Staff Nurse, Infant Special Care Unit, Evanston Hospital, NorthShore University HealthSystem, Evanston, Illinois Medical errors are one of the most common issues discussed among quality care and risk management healthcare professionals and are of great concern to me as a new nurse. The Institute of Medicine brought the issue of medical errors to the forefront of healthcare awareness with its landmark report To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System, but the concern existed in hospitals long before that publication. Unfortunately we have not made much progress. Many policies and procedures have been put into place to decrease the number of medical errors in hospitals. Some examples include electronic bar coding for medications, co-checking lab labels with a second RN, and performing time-outs before procedures. With increasing demands placed on nurses, it is critical that individual units address what they can do to foster quality care and prevent errors. We needed to do something.What do you think you would do if you were this nurse?
Above is the opening scene in chapter 20 of the text book.
Read the opening scene in Chapter 20 entitled “The Challenge.” Answer how you would handle this situation as nurse manager. Be sure to use evidence and literature to support your answer.
The text book is: LEADING and MANAGING in NURSING
6th ed.
Patricia S. Yoder-Wise
Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, Lubbock, Texas
