Does your hospital / workplace have an environment where individuals are able to report
errors or patient safety concerns without fear?
Take this important confidential
survey!
Background
It is every nurse’s worst nightmare to commit a medication
or medical error that results in patient harm. When an error does happen, it is
a tragedy for the patient, their families and the nurses.
- Does your hospital / workplace have an environment where individuals are able to report
errors or near misses without fear of reprimand or punishment?
- Does your hospital / workplace administration encourage collaboration across ranks
and disciplines to seek solutions to patient safety problems?
The Institute of Medicine (IOM), in its 1999 report “To Err is Human: Building a Safer Health System” (PDF),
finds that errors are most commonly “caused by faulty systems,
processes, and conditions that lead people to make mistakes or fail to prevent them.”
The IOM report goes on to state that “blaming an individual
does little to make the system safer and prevent someone else from committing the
same error” and that “mistakes can best be prevented
by designing the health system at all levels to make it safer – to make it
harder for people to do something wrong and easier for them to do it right.”
Quality and safe patient care is a top priority for the Washington State Nurses
Association. We are committed to protecting our patients by doing everything we
can to reduce and eliminate medication and medical errors.
Your responses to this survey will be essential as WSNA implements a statewide patient
safety education / advocacy program and continues efforts in developing strategies
to promote patient safety, reduce errors and address both system and human factors
that contribute to increased risks for patients.
Survey
Please take a moment to fill out this important confidential
survey to tell us about the safety culture at your hospital or workplace.
