NURSE LEADER FORUM

New leadership forum debuts

At the Chief Nursing Officers Patient Safety Leadership Forum, top nurse leaders from around the world devised strategies for addressing and defining nurses' role in improving patient safety. Attendees crafted four strategies nurse leaders could use to make patient safety a priority:

1. Include nurses in the development, purchase, and implementation of patient safety technology so they can act as change agents.

2. Collaborate with healthcare associations to promote models that help hospitals apply best practices for training nurses to lead staff members in identifying trouble spots along the care continuum.

3. Develop a process to foster a safe work environment, and delegate non-nursing tasks to other healthcare employees so nurses can focus on patient safety.

4. Ask state hospital associations to designate some of their dues to help fund programs that focus on patient safety. For more information, visit http://www.cardinalhealth.com/cnoforum.

PATIENT SAFETY

Communication reduces errors

A new study of 1,700 nurses, physicians, administrators, and clinical care staff indicates that poor communication between healthcare professionals significantly impacts medical errors and staff communication. The study's salient points include:

[white diamond suit] 84% of physicians and 62% of nurses and clinical care workers have witnessed co-workers taking dangerous shortcuts in their patient care.

[white diamond suit] 88% of physicians and 48% of nurses and other healthcare providers work with someone who shows poor clinical judgment.

[white diamond suit] Less than 10% of physicians, nurses, and healthcare workers directly confront colleagues about their concerns.

[white diamond suit] Those who do confront co-workers report better patient outcomes and higher job satisfaction.

The study, Silence Kills: The Seven Crucial Conversations for Healthcare, is available at http://www.rxforbettercare.org.