NSB203 - Inquiry: How Safety Checklists Improve Patient Safety

This essay critically examines the role of safety checklists in improving patient safety within healthcare settings. It highlights the World Health Organization's emphasis on preventing unnecessary harm to patients and acknowledges the inherent risks in care processes. The essay presents safety checklists as a valuable tool for reducing medical errors, improving communication, and ensuring consistent processes. It references studies and surveys indicating the widespread adoption and perceived benefits of safety checklists among healthcare professionals, including improved patient transfer and discharge processes, increased self-confidence among professionals, and better patient-physician relationships. The essay concludes that safety checklists are a free and effective resource for healthcare organizations to enhance service quality, avoid errors, and ensure patient safety.

Running head: INQUIRY INTO CLINICAL PRACTICE (NURSING)
INQUIRY INTO CLINICAL PRACTICE (NURSING)
PART 1: CRITICAL DEBATE
SAFETY CHECKLIST IN HEALTHCARE IMPROVE PATIENT SAFETY
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1INQUIRY INTO CLINICAL PRACTICE (NURSING)
According to the World Health Organization during the care process in health care
organization it is important to prevent and reduce unnecessary harm to the patient in order to
ensure patient safety (who,int, 2018). However, it has been argued that at every point of care
process a certain degree of unsafety is associated with the care process. Number of studies and
research have identified significant cases of unnecessary harm due to the lack of proper
interventions related to patient safety. Such lack of patient safety could lead to permanent injury,
increase the time period of stay in the hospital, as well as death in some severe cases. Thus,
effective care policies, interventions and proper steps have been taken by the health care
organizations in the recent year in order to reduce the risk of unnecessary harm due to lack of
patient safety (Olds et al., 2017, p. 155-161). Using safety checklist has been considered as the
one of the most effective step in improving patient safety. In order to improve the quality of care
and patient safety most of the health professionals are preferring to utilize safety checklist to
reduce the patient harm and eradicate the medical errors in an effective manner (Thomassen et
al., 2014, p. 5-18). In the year 2010, the Health Leaders Media Industry Survey has indicated that
88.8% of health professionals prefer to use safety checklist in order to prevent errors (Borchard
et al., 2012, p. 925-933).
Research has reported many benefits of using safety check lists in the health care
organization in order to order to improve patient safety in an effective manner. The safety
checklist helps to promote the improvement and increase the patient safety. Introducing a
formalized process for using safety checklist reduces the number of errors caused due to lack of
information, miscommunication and inconsistent process (Russ et al., 2013, p. 856-871). Using a
safety checklist helps to improve the process of patient transfer and discharge process in
hospitals. Beside the improvement in the service, safety checklist helps to create self-confidence

2INQUIRY INTO CLINICAL PRACTICE (NURSING)
within the health professionals that the treatment process is completed in an accurate way
(Thomassen et al., 2014, p. 5-18). Study has reported that in the recent patient safety process the
process of summarizing the evidence in a safety checklist has been considered as the compulsory
action, as it helps to recognize the barriers in the implementation process, measure the
performance of the evidence and ensure that all patients get the evidence for their treatment. It
indicates that the decisions taken by the professionals are best to achieve desired outcomes
(Borchard et al., 2012, p. 925-933). On the other hand it has been found that checklist helps to
improve communication, thus improves patient-physician relationship as it helps to manage
diffuse situation and avoid litigations (Russ et al., 2013, p. 856-871). Hence, it can be said that in
improving the quality of care and patient safety to avoid unnecessary harm, safety checklist plays
an important role. The most interesting part is that the safety checklist is a free resource for the
health care organization and the benefits are not limited. Thus, Thomassen et al., (2014, p. 5-18)
have recommended the health facilities to adapt safety checklist in order to improve their service,
avoid errors and ensure patient safety.

3INQUIRY INTO CLINICAL PRACTICE (NURSING)
References:
Borchard, A., Schwappach, D. L., Barbir, A., & Bezzola, P. (2012). A systematic review of the
effectiveness, compliance, and critical factors for implementation of safety checklists in
surgery. Annals of surgery, 256(6), 925-933.
Olds, D. M., Aiken, L. H., Cimiotti, J. P., & Lake, E. T. (2017). Association of nurse work
environment and safety climate on patient mortality: A cross-sectional
study. International journal of nursing studies, 74, 155-161.
Russ, S., Rout, S., Sevdalis, N., Moorthy, K., Darzi, A., & Vincent, C. (2013). Do safety
checklists improve teamwork and communication in the operating room? A systematic
review. Annals of surgery, 258(6), 856-871.
Thomassen, Ø., Storesund, A., Søfteland, E., & Brattebø, G. (2014). The effects of safety
checklists in medicine: a systematic review. Acta Anaesthesiologica Scandinavica, 58(1),
5-18.
who,int. (2018). Patient safety. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/patientsafety/en/