Assignment – Introduction to Safety Science
For your assignment this week please answer the following 3 questions:
Think of the tragedies that spurred the current health care safety movement cited in the IOM reports on page 5 (table 1-1) in your text (Wachter, 2012).
Question 1. Think back of your clinical experiences. What were some times that you felt you or your patients were at risk? Write (in a paragraph or two) about what was happening in the clinical environment, and also with you personally and/or professionally at that time.
Wachter (2012) selects “triggers” as identified by the Institute for Health Care Improvement (IHI) to search for errors (p. 10-11)
Question 2: Write a paragraph or two about a nurse-related (nurse-sensitive) trigger that you feel would help us (health care providers) screen for errors. Explain why you chose that trigger. (150 words minimum)
Lucian Leape says “every mistake is due to a system failure.” Think about your own experiences as a clinician or patient from question 1.
Question 3: What systems or processes could have kept risk minimal or the mistake from happening? (150 words minimum)