The Role of Communication in Patient Safety

In nursing, communication is one of the most essential elements in ensuring that the safety of the patients has been met, because without it, then the patient outcome rates will be considerably low. For many years, effective communication has been linked to the positive outcomes of patients. It has been noticed that nurse communication has an effect on the length in which patients stay in hospital as well as the efficiency of their treatment. Adequate nurse communication in medical centers has the outcome of decreasing the duration of patients’ stay in hospital. It has also been found that there is a decrease in the number of medical errors made concerning patients. Furthermore, adequate communication also has an impact on nurses because they become more motivated in their work, which increases their efficiency. This efficiency helps the patient as it improves the care which they are given, and this leads to the patient’s swift recovery.

One of the factors which influence communication between nurses and patients is the complexity of the hospital and nursing systems, so that the larger and more complex they are, the higher the risk that the potential for patient errors will be increased. It is therefore necessary to ensure that adequate communication between the various hospital systems is instituted so that the number of such errors can be reduced or done away with. The quality of care depends completely on the accuracy and completeness of information being available to the nurses who care for the patients. While this is important, it should be noted that the accuracy of the information becomes outdated over time and this is the reason why more, up to date information has to be collected to ensure that the caregivers provide the best service possible to the patient.

Errors tend to occur when during the communication of a patient’s medication. This usually happens when there is a misinterpretation of the various abbreviations or acronyms to the drugs which have been prescribed to the patient. This creates a situation where there is the potential of a patient taking the wrong drugs, taking the drugs at the wrong time of the day, or even worse, taking an overdose of the prescribed drugs. It is therefore necessary to ensure that errors in the writing down of instructions for the patient or caregiver are avoided and that the person writing the said instructions is alert at all times to the potential of making mistakes. Among the recommendations that can be made is that there must be a standardization of all the abbreviations and acronyms for the drugs used in the medical field so that there can be no confusion over the type of drugs that have been prescribed. It has been found that many drugs have similar names which may lead to the nurse giving the patient the wrong medicine. To prevent such incidences, it has been recommended that capital and small letters be used to differentiate the drugs with similar names to avoid confusion. This will work to ensure that there is uniformity in the communication of medication and this will ultimately promote the safety of the patients to whom the medication is prescribed. With uniformity in communication, the work of the nurses will become less cumbersome because they will be able to be accurate in their administration of medication.

In many hospital systems, there is always a breakdown in communication due to the fact that the nursing staff is usually afraid to report errors because of the potential of being punished. This fear has made it difficult for errors to be corrected and has ensured that the outcome for patients is greatly diminished. The lack of adequate communication has created a scenario where nurses are not able to conduct their activities efficiently and this has come to have a devastating impact on the safety of the patients. Hospital management should create an environment where nurses and other hospital staff are comfortable enough to report any errors which they find without any fear of punishment. In order to achieve this, the management of the hospital should have frequent communication with the nurses who deal directly with the patients and know firsthand the needs and requirement of the latter. Such regular communication ensures that the nursing staff is free with the management, and because of this, errors which would not otherwise have been pointed out come to be dealt with quickly to ensure the safety of the patients involved.

The effort of the healthcare industry to improve the safety of patients is being hampered because of the poor communication between caregivers and patients as well as the lack of adequate tools for measuring the safety of patients. Furthermore, despite the availability of a wide array of medical equipment and practices, they cannot be effective without there being adequate communication between the caregivers and the patients. In order to make sure that medical care is efficient, there is a need for the establishment of mechanisms or structures which will enable medical staff to communicate with patients. This will ensure that medical staff  to acquire adequate and accurate data to help them make the correct judgment concerning how to deal with patients. This will create a situation where the number of errors are reduced and the effectiveness of treatment, hence patient safety.

While a few decades ago the incidents of errors being made by hospital staff were low, today, such errors have become common and the biggest cause of this is poor communication. This has become so widespread that it is a constant worry for the management of hospitals. The best way through which caregiver can ensure the safety of their patients is when they have adequate knowledge of the condition of their patient. This ensure that the caregiver is better able to communicate with the patient and it creates an environment where the patient is confident  in his or her caregiver and this helps to improve patient outcome.

Communication is an important factor in ensuring the safety and high outcome for patients and it is essential that nurses develop their communication skills. Communication is one of the most common problems facing the medical profession today and it is because of this that the number of errors has, over time, increased. It is therefore necessary for adequate communication to be developed with patients to ensure that they have a high standard of safety.

Nursing Shortage

Nursing shortage is a global problem which, of not checked, is fast spreading to levels where it can no longer be managed. Nursing is a profession that is least understood by many in the world, even those who are considered to be the most educated. In most cases, it is a profession which is taken for granted, with nurses having to work in conditions that can only be considered to be inhospitable for them. What many governments and policymakers fail to understand is the fact that nurses are a crucial factor in the healthcare system and that without them, this system will most likely collapse. Nurses are needed in the care for individuals in hospitals as well as the general population of the world because of their unique ability not only to save the lives of their patients, but also for the purpose of improving their outcomes. When one considers the current situation, it can be said that the shortage has mainly been caused by the public misunderstanding of exactly what nurses do. In most cases, the public holds take the duties that nurses perform for granted, giving more importance to doctors than to nurses. This has given rise to the notion that the nursing profession is not important, therefore influencing the decision of many people who would have gone into the profession to choose other professions which are deemed to be more important. The shortage can be said to be caused by three main factors which include poor working conditions, limited funding available for research, and finally, the short staffing in hospitals.

The nursing profession has been taken for granted for a long time and it is only recently that its importance has come to be recognized as a shortage has developed. This shortage in the number of nurses in hospitals has created a situation where there is understaffing meaning that the available nurses have to work long hours (Mee & Robinson, 2003). These long hours has a tendency of taking a toll on the physical and mental wellbeing of the nurses involved and may, in fact, lead to a reduction in their performance levels. This reduction in their performance means that the wellbeing of their patients is placed in jeopardy since some of them may require more attention from the nurses in order to make a quick recovery. A nursing shortage, therefore, creates a situation where patients are not provided with the best healthcare available and this is mainly due to the low nurse to patient ratio that the shortage creates. If this shortage is not countered with efficient policies, then it will most likely end up costing the health systems of many countries dear. This is because of the fact that without nurses, there will be a low patient outcome since the patients will not be receiving the care they need to recover effectively. Furthermore, as the aging population continues to increase and the demand for nurses also increases, there is the possibility that the mortality rate of the human population will be quite high in the coming years.

The nursing shortage has dire implications on the future of the nursing profession and among these is the possibility that in future, there may be a shortage of teachers to teach the new generation of nurses. This is mainly due to the fact that the number of experience nurses available to guide the younger generation of nurses into the profession will be extremely low. This will create a situation where it will be impossible for nurses to work effectively most of their action will be done through trial and error, ensuring that the patient outcome remains low. The future of this profession is quite bleak because it has for a long time been associated to women, who in the modern times have a wide range of career option open to them. This means that the idea of nursing as the premier professional option for women is fast fading away. It is therefore prudent for healthcare policymakers to make the profession more attractive to the younger generation through improving the working conditions, providing enough funds for education and research, and in this economically motivated world, ensuring that nurses are given salaries that are decent.

For many years, the safe staffing of nurses has been linked to the positive outcomes of patients. It has been noticed that nurse staffing has an effect on the length in which patients stay in hospital as well as the efficiency of their treatment. Adequate nurse staffing in hospitals has the outcome of decreasing the duration of patients’ hospital stay. It has also been found that there is a decrease in the number of medical errors made concerning patients. Furthermore, adequate staffing also has an impact on nurses because they become more motivated in their work, which increases their efficiency. This efficiency helps the patient as it improves the care which they are given, and this leads to the patient’s swift recovery. Adequate nurse staffing in hospitals reduces the patients’ mortality rates due to the fact that they have the full attention of the nurses throughout their convalescence. It is, therefore, important for hospitals to ensure that they have adequate nurse staffing so that only the best possible care can be provided for patients. Moreover, with a balanced nurse to patient ratio, the patients’ hospital stay will be reduced, meaning that more attention will be given to the remaining patients.

It is a fact that nurse staffing does indeed have an impact on the quality of care that patients receive. If the ratio between nurses and patients is well balanced, then the patients will have the best care and their recovery will be quite swift. However, if there are fewer nurses in relation to the patients they serve, then the latter will have very poor service. In fact, their recovery rate, will be very low while their mortality rate will go up significantly. Nurse staffing should always be given priority when dealing with matters concerning healthcare to ensure that services of good quality are provided for patients.

Pneumonia

Pneumonia is a medical state that affects the air sacs in the lungs identified as alveoli and it can be defined further as an inflammatory lung condition. This condition is tends to be caused by either viral or bacterial infections, as well as certain microorganisms or some drugs which individuals are ingesting. In addition, pneumonia might be caused by autoimmune diseases which make it easier for infections to occur in the lungs. Among the most typical symptoms of this condition coughs, pain in the chest, a certain amount of fever, as well as the person infected having difficulty in breathing. There are various tools which are used in diagnosing this condition and these include the use of x-rays, or taking a sample of sputum for testing. There are various types of vaccines available for the prevention of pneumonia and these are complemented by the treatment measures available for those who suffer from the infection. The treatment of this condition depends on the agent that caused it, whether it is viral or bacterial. If the infection is caused by bacteria, then the condition is treated using antibiotics but if the condition is caused by a virus, on the other hand, the most common treatment used are neuraminidase inhibitors. When an infection is deemed to be severe, the most likely cause of action that doctors tend to take is to have the patient admitted to hospital because if left untreated, this condition often proves to be fatal. It is estimated that on an annual basis, pneumonia affects over four hundred million people and of these, about four million meet their deaths from the condition. While this condition has been made treatable with the advancement of the development of antibiotic therapy as well as vaccines, pneumonia still remains one of the most dangerous as well as the a leading cause of death, especially in developing countries. The people, in these countries, who are at the most risk of infection, tend to be the young, the elderly, and those who are extremely ill.

Those who are infected by pneumonia tend to display certain symptoms which provide the evidence that they have indeed been infected. Among the symptoms that they display include coughing, a fever, a stabbing pain in the chest when taking deep breaths, and most of all, an increase in the rate of respiration because of the shortness of breath that they experience. One of the most prominent symptoms that is displayed by older people is that of being confused. Among children, on the other hand, there is often a fever, coughing, as well as difficulty in breathing. When making a diagnosis of the condition, too much insistence should not be put on the detection of a fever because this is a common symptom that can be found in quite a number of diseases such as malaria among other severe diseases. In addition, coughs should also not be considered to be a common symptom among children who are less than a year old and instead, more severe signs should be looked out for. Among the severe symptoms of this condition is the appearance of a blue tinge on the skin, a decrease in the infected person’s thirst, convulsions, and the most severe of all, a decrease in consciousness level. Whatever the source of infection, whether bacterial or viral, the victims of pneumonia often display the same symptoms and this is the reason why specific tests have to be carried out to ensure that the correct treatment is prescribed to a patient.

While pneumonia is often caused by either bacterial or viral infections, it is not uncommon to find that even fungi and other parasites can cause this condition. It has, however been estimated that of the over one hundred agents that can potentially cause pneumonia, only a few of these agents are actually responsible for the majority of the cases involved. In a little more than 45% of the cases studied in children, it has been found that the causing agents have been a mixture of bacterial and viral infections. Among adults, on the other hand, the potential for there being a mixed bacterial and viral infection as a cause for pneumonia has been estimated to be about 15%. The causing agent of an infection cannot be identified in more than half of the cases tested, despite the tests being conducted carefully. This is the reason why pneumonia has come to be a all-purpose term for any illness that causes the inflammation of the lungs. There are various factors which influence the development of pneumonia and these include the following: smoking, chronic kidney disease, immunodeficiency among other factors. The use of medications that are meant for the suppression of acids as well as old age are risk factors that also expose individuals to pneumonia.

The diagnosis of pneumonia is often done using a combination of both the physical symptoms as well as the conducting of a chest x-ray but despite these; the underlying causative agents of this condition are difficult to determine. This is because of the fact that definitive tests for the determination of the causative agents of this condition have yet to be made. According to the World Health Organization, this condition in children is defined as their having coughs or difficulty in breathing as well as having a rapid respiratory rate. The latter is defined as rapid when the rate of breathing is more than sixty breaths a minute, especially in children who are less than two months old. It has been found that in children, it is much more effective to check for an increased respiratory rate and chest in drawing than having to listen to their chest crackles using a stethoscope. Among adults, it is not necessary to conduct investigations in cases where there are mild symptoms, as long as all the vital signs of the individual are normal. Among those people who require hospitalization after infection, it is recommended that chest radiography and blood tests should be conducted. It is a fact that many of the viral infections that cause pneumonia are based on influenza, and because of this, it must not only be confirmed by symptoms, but also through the conducting of tests.

Among the best ways that have been found to prevent pneumonia is the use of vaccines as well as taking measures which are appropriate for the treatment of other health problems that might be a cause of the condition. It has been estimated that if preventive measures are to be taken to deal with the condition, the quite a large number of children, nearly half a million, would be saved from death per annum. It has also been found that if the necessary treatment for the condition is made available, especially for children, worldwide, then the mortality rates would be reduced by another half a million, meaning that a combination of preventative measures as well as treatments would ensure that the mortality rates among children would be brought down by a million, an extremely significant reduction indeed. Pneumonia vaccines prevent some infections that are either caused by viruses or bacteria in the entire human population, but influenza vaccines have also been found to be effective in preventing infections. It is recommended that individuals who are over six months old should undergo vaccination every year so that the risk of infection, especially those caused by viruses, can be reduced.

It is recommended that those people who smoke cease to do so because they are at a higher risk of getting infected than other people. Furthermore, the reduction of indoor air pollution goes a long way in preventing the development of pneumonia, and to achieve this end, indoor cooking using such fuels as wood should cease. Other preventative measures include the keeping of good general hygiene as well as coughing into ones sleeve in order to prevent any possible infection from getting transferred to others. It is further recommended that those people who are infected by the condition wear surgical masks because to do so will ensure that the risk of the infection being spread within the population is greatly reduced. Pneumonia is sometimes caused by underlying diseases such as HIV or malnutrition, and as a preventative measure, these diseases have to be treated appropriately so that this risk can be reduced. Mothers who exclusively breastfeed their children who are less than six months old ensure that the risk of their contracting pneumonia is reduced, and that if these children are infected, then there is a reduction in the severity of the condition.

When a specialist in the infections that cause pneumonia is making a treatment plan, he or she should also consider other possible treatments for the condition apart from the administration of oral antibiotics. If there is no improvement in the condition of the patient through home care, and the symptoms he or she displays seem to worsen, then it will be necessary for such a person to be hospitalized so that he can receive specialized care. There are times when the only option left for specialists is to design a treatment plan which include the trial of new drugs or treatment methods for their patients. Such options tend to come about especially in situations where other treatments have failed to work. While these new treatments are designed to help the patients involved, they also help in the assessment of how different drugs work on them. This helps in future research, which comes up with even better treatments for pneumonia. In conclusion, it can be said that pneumonia is a medical condition that has plagued the human population for a long time, and it can affect anyone, no matter how young or old they are. Because of this, it is essential to ensure that enough funding is provided so that research in the treatment of this condition can be advanced. In almost every instance that one develops this disease, it comes to affect everyone who is close to them. In severe cases, it is quite possible that an infected person might transmit the condition to those around them, and this is something which is highly undesirable. There are times when treatment for the condition while the patient resides at home proves to be difficult, and the solution is often to have then hospitalized. It is, therefore, essential that the specialist involved in the treatment of the disease to provide the patient with all the treatment options available for them, so that the patient is aware of all the possible ways that their condition might be treated. After doing this, it is the duty of the specialist to advice the patient on what the best treatment options for them are available. When the patient is aware of all the treatment options open to them, it will be immensely easy for them to adjust their lifestyle so that they can dedicate themselves to their recovery.