Role of Registered Nurses in Maintaining Safe Clinical Environment

This report examines the critical role of Registered Nurses (RNs) in maintaining a safe clinical environment, focusing on patient-centered care for adult patients experiencing acute health issues. The report delves into the importance of RNs in promoting safety, including educating patients, formulating safety regulations, and addressing patient safety concerns. It discusses the purpose and application of a Surgical Safety Checklist, emphasizing its role in reducing complications and improving communication within the operating room. Furthermore, the report highlights the significance of confirming patient identity, marking surgical sites, assessing allergies, and ensuring appropriate antibiotic prophylaxis. It also underscores the importance of verbal communication within the surgical team, reviewing patient safety risks, and discussing key concerns for patient recovery and management. The report utilizes peer-reviewed references to support its findings, offering a comprehensive overview of RN responsibilities in ensuring patient safety and well-being in healthcare settings.

Running head: NURSING 1
Nursing
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

NURSING 2
Role of the Registered Nurse in maintaining a safe clinical environment
Registered Nurses play a significant role in promoting safety clinical environment
(Purpora, 2015). Firstly, registered nurses educate the surgery patients together with their family
members regarding their personal safety in the clinical setting. This education serves a
significant role in reducing the number of accidents in the clinical setting. Registered nurses are
also the key players in formulating clinical safety rules and regulations and designing posters to
guide the entire staff, patients and their family members hence promoting safety in the clinical
setting.
Also, Registered Nurses ensure that the relationship between patient safety and nursing
work is maintained. In case a problem related to the safety of patients arises, these nurses are in
the best position to find a lasting possible solution and on time. Similarly, when it comes to
issues concerning safety, they are counted upon to provide useful information and potential
mitigation measures. Finally, in Canada, these nurses have been at the forefront in driving
forward agendas concerning safety and healthcare quality in the facilities.
Purpose of a Surgical Safety Checklist
A Surgical Safety Checklist was introduced to reduce complications and mortality that
arise due to surgery. It also helps in improving teamwork communication within the Operating
Room (Solsky, 2018). It reduces a lot of errors. Importantly, it helps in ensuring that antibiotic
administration is adhered to appropriately. Checklists have also helped in preventing wrong-site
surgeries. Lastly, if Safety Checklists are used appropriately, then best practices will be adhered
to in health care facilities.
Importance of confirming a patient's identity

NURSING 3
Patient’s identity procedures play a significant role. Confirming patient’s identity
prevents the occurrence of errors such as wrong discharge, testing or medication. Furthermore,
during surgical operations, confirming patient’s identity help in the eradication of wrong
procedures (Härkänen, 2018). When patients are properly identified, their useful information is
readily available to promote effective operations especially in time of emergencies. Also, the use
of at least two identifiers for patient identification helps to maintain the safety of patients.
Monitoring and identification of patients' condition in the hospital is paramount. For this reason,
patient identification should be accurately done. With correct patient identification, the medical
condition of patients in the hospital will be easily identified.
Importance of marking the patient’s surgery site/location
Marking of patient’s surgery site helped prevent the performance of wrong surgical
operations to the wrong people. In some cases, surgical procedures have been performed to the
wrong people or the wrong sides. This has been found to be due to wrong marking the patient's
surgery site or location (St, 2016). Also, correct marking of the patient's surgery site/location
promotes realization of a clear pattern of the underlying causes of errors that occur during
surgery. Furthermore, marking patient’s surgery site promotes proper planning and preparation
for the surgical process. This includes timely assembling of surgical equipment.
Importance of knowing if the patient has any known allergies
Antibiotic prophylaxis must be administered to patients before they undergo any surgical
procedure. Therefore, the importance of assessing the patients’ allergy is to enable the health
care provider to determine the correct antibiotic to administer before a surgical procedure

NURSING 4
(Blumenthal, 2017). For instance, cephalosporin type of antibiotic should not be administered to
patients who have penicillin allergy.
Assessing the patient's allergy helps in the eradication of allergic cross-reactions. Allergy
assessment also plays a very important role when it comes to the upkeep of routine preoperative
care. Determining the type of allergy helps to reduce the risks of Surgical Site Infection (SSI)
(LaHood, 2017). These infections can cause further health complications.
Importance of knowing if antibiotic prophylaxis has been given
Knowing if an antibiotic prophylaxis has been given helps the surgical practitioner in
proper timing and administration of antibiotic prophylaxis as a strategic approach in prevention
of surgical site infections. Often, antibiotic prophylaxis should be given within one hour before
surgery and discontinued within 24 hours after surgery. It is for this reason that the surgeon must
confirm whether antibiotic prophylaxis has been administered appropriately before performing
any surgical procedure. Failure to consider the timing guidelines may constitute extra-costs as a
result of hospital-acquired injuries. Moreover, it is important to know if antibiotic prophylaxis
has been given for proper timing of administration with a fundamental aim of preventing
Infective Endocarditis (Thornhill, 2016).
Importance of surgeon verbally checking labelling with the surgical team
Maximum collaboration and teamwork should be enhanced in the operation room
(Tørring, et., al, 2019). Therefore, the surgeon as the leader of the surgical team, should
communicate with the rest of the surgical team for easy coordination and relation. Verbal
communication is also a perfect way of communication enhances the efficiency and quality of
surgical procedures.

NURSING 5
Additionally, verbal checking of the labels gives everyone in the team more knowledge
and skills to embrace teamwork. This also enhances easy assessment and understanding of the
clinical condition, which ultimately enhances appropriate decision making. Verbal
communication should therefore be enhanced in the operation room to uphold strong relation and
coordination in the surgical setting.
Importance of reviewing any patient safety risks during surgery
Reviewing patient’s risks during surgery is a strategic approach in promoting patient
safety. Often the levels of care in the operation room keep shifting from time to time (Graban,
2018). Thus, the patient’s safety risks should be reviewed constantly in order to create a
conducive environment for patient’s safety. Another importance of reviewing the safety risks is
enhancing the development of other advanced roles of nurses in regards to the provision of
patient-centred care whilst maintaining a safe clinical environment.
Importance of discussing any key concerns for the patient’s recovery and management of
the patient
Engagement between patients and their healthcare providers is essential, especially when
it comes to the provision of patient-centred healthcare services. This engagement is enhanced
through monitoring and evaluation of the patient's conditions and discussing the issues
concerning the patients. Also, discussing key concerns regarding patient’s recovery and
management helps obtain meaningful information concerning the patient. This information plays
a vital role in promoting patients safety and wellbeing.
Through exploration of the key concerns regarding patient’s recovery and management,
improvement in the outcome of patents and their experiences will be realised (Wick, et., al,

NURSING 6
2015). Most importantly, such discussions will promote creativity in handling fundamental
issues circumnavigating patient’s recovery and management thus promoting quick recovery. As a
result, the time spent by the patient in the hospital setting is minimized thus reducing the
workload in the hospital setting. In other words, discussing key concerns regarding patient’s
recovery and management plays a significant in planning for the realization of patient’s
wellbeing in the hospital.

NURSING 7
References
Blumenthal, K. G., Ryan, E. E., Li, Y., Lee, H., Kuhlen, J. L., & Shenoy, E. S. (2017). The
impact of a reported penicillin allergy on surgical site infection risk. Clinical Infectious
Diseases, 66(3), 329-336.
Graban, M. (2018). Lean hospitals: improving quality, patient safety, and employee engagement.
Productivity Press.
Härkänen, M., Tiainen, M., & Haatainen, K. (2018). Wrong‐patient incidents during medication
administrations. Journal of clinical nursing, 27(3-4), 715-724.
LaHood, B. R., Andrew, N. H., & Goggin, M. (2017). Antibiotic prophylaxis in cataract surgery
in the setting of penicillin allergy: A decision-making algorithm. survey of
ophthalmology, 62(5), 659-669.
Purpora, C., & Blegen, M. A. (2015). Job satisfaction and horizontal violence in hospital staff
registered nurses: the mediating role of peer relationships. Journal of clinical nursing,
24(15-16), 2286-2294.
Solsky, I., Berry, W., Edmondson, L., Lagoo, J., Baugh, J., Blair, A., ... & Haynes, A. B. (2018).
WHO Surgical Safety Checklist Modification: Do Changes Emphasize Communication
and Teamwork?. Journal of Surgical Research.
St, J. J., Walker, J., Goldberg, D., & Maloney, M. E. (2016). Avoiding Medical Errors in
Cutaneous Site Identification: A Best Practices Review. Dermatologic surgery: official
publication for American Society for Dermatologic Surgery [et al.], 42(4), 477-484.
Thornhill, M. H., Dayer, M., Lockhart, P. B., McGurk, M., Shanson, D., Prendergast, B., &
Chambers, J. B. (2016). Guidelines on prophylaxis to prevent infective endocarditis.
British dental journal, 220(2), 51.

NURSING 8
Tørring, B., Gittell, J. H., Laursen, M., Rasmussen, B. S., & Sørensen, E. E. (2019).
Communication and relationship dynamics in surgical teams in the operating room: an
ethnographic study. BMC health services research, 19(1), 528.
Wick, E. C., Galante, D. J., Hobson, D. B., Benson, A. R., Lee, K. K., Berenholtz, S. M., ... &
Wu, C. L. (2015). Organizational culture changes result in improvement in patient-
centered outcomes: implementation of an integrated recovery pathway for surgical
patients. Journal of the American College of Surgeons, 221(3), 669-677.

NURSING 9