Concept of Safety for the Older Adult
Safety – Freedom from accidental injuries, ensuring patient safety involves the establishment of
operational systems and processes that minimize the likelihood of errors and maximizes the likelihood of
intercepting them when they occur.
Safe Care – Avoiding injuries to patients from the care that is intended to help them.
• Safe Care involves making evidence based clinical decisions to maximize the health outcomes of
an individual to minimize the potential for harm.
Patient Safety – Prevention of healthcare errors and the elimination or mitigation of patient injury
caused by healthcare errors.
Safety has TWO dimensions
• What the nurse does individually - The nurse practices personally and their education.
1. Not using abbreviations
2. Doing the 6 rights/3 Med checks
3. Scanning bar codes
4. Reviewing unknown medications
5. Making check lists to help memory
6. Effective communication
• The Healthcare system – The rules for practice that they have in place and education provided
for the nurses help on behalf of the institution.
1. Enhancing technology – Bar codes, computer provider order entry.
2. Focusing on problem and how to fix it rather than who made the error.
Risk Related to Inadequate Knowledge
Sharing medication with friends or relatives
• Common and persists because many older adults are unaware of the dangers.
• Could cause drug interactions or other problems
Use of OTC medications
• May not understand the potential for negative interactions
• Can create or mask symptoms of disease
Use of Alcohol
• May not know about potential negative interactions with prescription drugs.
Misunderstanding prescription drug labels.
Risks related to finances
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