Modern healthcare environments are becoming increasingly complex. Delivering high-quality fundamental care in these environments is challenging for nurses and has been the focus of recent media, policy, academic and public scrutiny. Much of this attention arises from evidence that fundamental care is being neglected or delivered inadequately. There are an increasing number of standards and approaches to the delivery of fundamental care, which may result in confusion and additional documentation for nurses to complete. This article provides nurses with an approach to reframe their thinking about fundamental care, to ensure they meet patients' care needs and deliver holistic, person-centred care.
Explicitly embedding the fundamentals of care within accredited nursing curricula is feasible and has observable, positive effects. [J Nurs Educ. 2018;57(8):498-501.].
Ensuring and maintaining patient safety is an essential aspect of care provision. Safety is a multidimensional concept, which incorporates interrelated elements such as physical and psychosocial safety. An effective nurse-patient relationship should ensure that these elements are considered when planning and providing care. This article discusses the importance of an effective nurse-patient relationship, as well as healthcare environments and working practices that promote safety, thus ensuring optimal patient care.
To gain greater insight into how nurses engage with the multidisciplinary team during the surgical safety checklist process.
Participants and settingParticipants were a purposeful sample of eight operating room nurses. The study was conducted in the operating room department of a major tertiary teaching hospital in South Australia.
MethodsPhase 1 employed participant observations while phase 2 employed semistructured interviews.
FindingsParticipants supported the use of the surgical safety checklist and valued its role to enhance patient safety. Multidisciplinary team culture played a significant role in how the checklist was conducted and heavily influenced the level of nurse participation in the process. Observations indicated poor compliance with the nursing review section of the checklist.
ConclusionsMultidisciplinary team engagement is important for effective communication during the process of utilising the surgical safety checklist to promote safe outcomes for patients. Nurses are more likely to actively participate in the checklist process if they feel their role is valued by other team members. The nurse-specific area of the checklist is an area for improvement as this tends to be overlooked and considered less important than other checklist items. Modifications in timing the checklist and nurse training may be beneficial to address non-compliance with the nurse area of the checklist.
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