Safety: a priority for our workplace and our patients

Let’s face it, everyone desires to live, work and be cared for in a secure environment. Safety is defined because the state of protection from an experience that will result in peril, risk, or injury (Oxford Languages, 2022). Unfortunately, safety continues to be a problem in healthcare. Too often we hear about health care staff or patients being harmed; the causes are different, but the consequences are similar – someone is affected.

Workplace violence in healthcare is on the rise

Research shows that workplace violence is increasing, and health care staff are five times more more likely to experience workplace violence than people in other professions (Ramzi, Fatah, & Davandi, 2022). Workplace violence is usually related to unexpected acute illness, fear of unpredictability, or severe stress experienced by the patient or member of the family (Stene et al., 2015). The surge in Covid cases and social unrest has definitely magnified all of those aspects for many individuals. Healthcare staff working in high-stress areas similar to the emergency department and intensive care are essentially the most vulnerable as a result of the character of their specialization. Violence amongst healthcare staff is related to decreased job satisfaction, decreased productivity, and lower quality of life, in addition to increased stress, burnout, and sleep disturbances (Ramzi, Fatah, & Davandi, 2022). These are among the same aspects that contribute to patient safety problems.

Patient safety stays a vital issue

Patient safety costs the world $42 billion annually and one in 10 patients worldwide experiences an hostile event (Skelly, Cassagnol, & Munakomi, 2022). In the United States alone, 250,000 patients experience hostile medical events every year, and 50% of those events are preventable. Most patient questions of safety focus on surgical issues, medications, and healthcare-associated infections (Skelly, Cassagnol, & Munakomi, 2022). Patient falls also proceed to be an issue. These numbers usually are not surprising. We knew there was an issue even before the pandemic; in the course of the pandemic, we were just attempting to keep people alive.

It’s time to give attention to safety for everybody

Health care staff have the suitable to be secure of their work, and patients have the suitable to be secure within the health care environment. In January 2022, the Joint Commission introduced (2022) to make sure employee safety. This translates into reinvestment in managing security issues, monitoring data, and educating and training employees to remain secure, reduce risk, and reply to threats.

All healthcare organizations evaluate quality of care and patient safety and implement programs to optimize patient care and safety. This initiative must not forget the importance of getting an adequate variety of competent staff, in addition to ensuring the emotional and psychological safety of healthcare staff in order that they usually are not burdened with expressing concerns in dangerous situations.

The bottom line is that safety is everyone’s right. When people enter our health care areas as employees or patients, they’ve the suitable to be secure, feel secure and receive secure treatment. It’s time to give attention to everyone’s safety!
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Bibliography:

Ramzi, Z. S., Fatah, P. W., and Dalvandi, A. (2022). The occurrence of workplace violence against healthcare staff in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic: a scientific review and meta-analysis., , 896156. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2022.896156

Skelly, C. L., Cassagnol, M., and Munakomi, S. (2022). Adverse events. IN . StatPearls Publishing House.

Stene, J., Larson, E., Levy, M., and Dohlman, M. (2015). Workplace violence within the emergency department: providing staff with the tools and support to report. , (2), e113–e117. https://doi.org/10.7812/TPP/14-187

Joint Commission (2022). Standards for stopping violence within the workplace. Joint Commission Resources. https://www.jointcommission.org/-/media/tjc/documents/standards/r3-reports/wpvp-r3-30_revised_06302021.pdf

Oxford Dictionary of Languages ​​(2022). https://languages.oup.com/dictionaries/