Organizations must protect the safety and well-being of nurses, staff, and patients through safety policies and processes. Nurses and the interprofessional team members should establish safety practices through a collaborative decision-making approach, based on strong evidence and focused on improving patient and population health outcomes. These initiatives include developing and revising patient care standards and policies as well as staff education, driven by strong missions, visions, goals, and values.
Strategies to maintain patient safety and quality of care:
- Implement process improvement strategies to help tackle the pandemic (e.g. LEAN, PDCA, etc.)
- Create a response team with staff representation from departments across the entire organization
- Coordinate efforts to prevent duplication
- Prioritize in accordance to urgency
- Network with other organizations (share with and learn from)
- Be courageous to listen and respond to the lived experiences of staff at the bedside
- Gather information from evidence-based studies
- Follow the recommended guidelines (i.e. CDC, OSHA, HHS)
- Establish your own protocol that meets your organization’s needs (triggered by the scarcity of resources, level of acuities of affected individuals, number of cases admitted, etc.)
- Ensure timely training and dissemination of information
- Be vigilant and open to taking risks!
Should you fall, be brave enough to get back up,
learn from those mistakes and move on!
