Question

how does the nurse use data collected from the patient assessment in order to promote safety?

Answer 1

Safety of the patients is very important in providing quality nursing care. But the healthcare system is prone to many errors and thus reduces quality care. The stakeholders are responsible for ensuring that the care is delivered safely to the patients and no harm is done. Errors occur mostly due to poor assessment. The nurses are held accountable. The initial assessment gives an outline of the condition of the patient. By knowing the patient the health care provider can plan for the treatment. Assessment looks to the safety of the patient by giving an overall picture of the patient and providing a pathway for the treatment so that something wrong in the care doesn't happen. The initial assessment is done by the nurses and the main role of the nurse is to promote optimum patient safety and quality care. So keeping this in mind the nurses should do a proper assessment and document it so that the data is shared with the other health care team members. For example if the patient is allergic to any shell fishes, the nurse documents it in the assessment. This indicates that certain dyes should not be injected for the patient during any diagnostic tests. If at all this data isn’t collected or isn’t documented it will cause allergic reactions to the patient and spoil the safety of the patient.