The daily relationships between staffing, safety perceptions and personality in hospital nursing: a longitudinal on-line diary study

Source: International Journal of Nursing Studies 59 pp. 27–37

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Date of publication: March 2016

Publication type:  Journal article

In a nutshell:  The association between poor staffing conditions and negative patient safety consequences is well established within hospital nursing. However, many studies have been limited to nurse population level associations, and have used routine data to examine relationships. As a result, it is less clear how these relationships might be manifested at the individual nurse level on a day-to-day basis. Furthermore, personality may have direct and moderating roles in terms of work environment and patient safety associations, but limited research has explored personality in this context.

The findings elucidate the potential mechanisms by which patient safety risks arise within hospital nursing, and suggest that nurses may not respond to staffing conditions in the same way, dependent upon personality. Further understanding of these relationships will enable staff to be supported in terms of work environment conditions on an individual basis.

Length of publication:  11 pages

Some important notes:  Please contact your local NHS Library for the full text of the article. Follow this link to find your local NHS Library

 

Application of a human factors classification framework for patient safety to identify precursor and contributing factors to adverse clinical incidents in hospital

Source:  Applied Ergonomics Jan/52 pp. 185-95

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Date of publication: January 2016

Publication type:  Journal article

In a nutshell:  This study aimed to identify temporal precursor and associated contributing factors for adverse clinical incidents in a hospital setting using the Human Factors Classification Framework (HFCF) for patient safety. A random sample of 498 clinical incidents were reviewed. The framework identified key precursor events (PE), contributing factors (CF) and the prime causes of incidents. Descriptive statistics and correspondence analysis were used to examine incident characteristics. Staff action was the most common type of PE identified. Correspondence analysis for all PEs that involved staff action by error type showed that rule-based errors were strongly related to performing medical or monitoring tasks or the administration of medication. Skill-based errors were strongly related to misdiagnoses. Factors relating to the organisation (66.9%) or the patient (53.2%) were the most commonly identified CFs. The HFCF for patient safety was able to identify patterns of causation for the clinical incidents, highlighting the need for targeted preventive approaches, based on an understanding of how and why incidents occur.

Length of publication:  11 pages

Some important notes:  Please contact your local NHS Library for the full text of the article. Follow this link to find your local NHS Library

Infection prevention and control: lessons from acute care in England

Source:  The Health Foundation

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Date of publication:  November 2015

Publication type:  Report

In a nutshell:  This learning report is based on the findings of a large research study that identified and consolidated published evidence about infection prevention and control initiatives. The researchers synthesised this with findings from qualitative case studies in two large NHS hospitals, including the perspectives of service users. The report considers what has been learned from the infection prevention and control work carried out over the last 15 years in hospitals in England. It looks at the lessons learned and outlines future directions for effective infection prevention and control.

Length of publication:  25 pages

A realist analysis of hospital patient safety in Wales: applied learning for alternative contexts from a multisite case study

Source:  Health Services and Delivery Research 3/40

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Date of publication: August 2015

Publication type:  Journal article

In a nutshell:  This study was designed to address gaps in conceptual, methodological and empirical knowledge about the influence of context on the local implementation of patient safety programmes.  The findings show how local implementation of patient safety interventions are impacted and modified by particular aspects of context.  Heightened awareness of the influence of context on the local implementation of patient safety programmes is required to inform the design of such interventions and to ensure their effective implementation and operationalisation in the day-to-day practice of health-care teams.

Length of Publication:  242 pages

Patient safety incident reporting continues to improve

Source:  NHS England

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Date of publication: September 2015

Publication type:  News item

In a nutshell: On 23 September 2015, NHS England published a six-monthly data report on patient safety incidents reported to the National Reporting and Learning System (NRLS) between 1 October 2014 and 31 March 2015.  The data published today sees an increase of 6.0% in the number of incidents reported compared to the same six month period in the previous year.

Length of Publication:  1 web page

How effective are patient safety initiatives? A retrospective patient record review study of changes to patient safety over time

Source:  BMJ Quality & Safety [Epub ahead of print]

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Date of publication:  July 2015

Publication type:  Journal article

In a nutshell:  This study aimed to assess whether, compared with previous years, hospital care became safer in 2011/2012, expressing itself in a fall in preventable adverse event (AE) rates alongside patient safety initiatives. The main patient safety initiatives in hospital care at a national level between 2004 and 2012 were small as well as large-scale multifaceted programmes. The study showed some improvements in preventable AEs in the areas that were addressed during the comprehensive national safety programme. There are signs that such a programme has a positive impact on patient safety.

Length of Publication:  1 web page

Our approach to changing the culture of caring for the acutely unwell patient at a large UK teaching hospital: A service improvement focus on Early Warning Scoring tools

Source: Intensive & Critical Care Nursing 31/2 pp. 106-15

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Date of publication:  April 2015

Publication type:  Journal article

In a nutshell:  Early Warning Scoring tools have been in place in Nottingham University Hospitals NHS Trust for over five years but compliance has been low. A service improvement project commenced across all admission wards in 2013. Prior to the project, only one out of five clinical care targets set were achieved. An established framework for service improvement was used to guide delivery. Since introduction of the service improvement team, consistent signs of improvement have been visible across the admission areas in four out of five of the clinical care targets. The first 12 months of the project has seen benefits in patient care and staff experience.

Length of Publication:  10 pages

Some important notes: Please contact your local NHS Library for the full text of the article. Follow this link to find your local NHS Library

Improving communication with primary care to ensure patient safety post-hospital discharge

Source:  British Journal of Hospital Medicine 76/1 pp. 46-9

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Date of publication:  January 2015

Publication type:  Journal article

In a nutshell: Successful communication between hospitals and primary care is vitally important to enable continuity of care and maintain patient safety post-discharge. Discharge summaries are the simplest way for GPs to obtain information about a patient’s hospital stay. A quality improvement study was conducted with the aim of increasing the content of discharge summaries for inpatients in the authors’ department. The content of discharge summaries was reviewed in accordance with local trust guidelines. Initial results pre-intervention confirmed suboptimal content of discharge summaries. Post-intervention results showed each component of discharge summaries improved in terms of content, with six of eight components having a statistically significant (P<0.05) increase. This was maintained after 12 months. Simple, intensive educational sessions can lead to an improvement in discharge summaries and communication with primary care.

Length of Publication:  4 pages

Some important notes: Please contact your local NHS Library for the full text of the article. Follow this link to find your local NHS Library

Bradford Teaching Hospitals pilot new patient safety scheme

Source:  ITV News

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Date of publication:  November 2014

Publication type:  News item

In a nutshell: Bradford Teaching Hospitals has been named as one of 10 centres which will pilot projects aimed at putting patients at the heart of patient safety. The Bradford PRASE (Patient Reporting and Action for a Safe Environment) scheme intends to advance the wellbeing of patients by using hospital volunteers to record real-time patient feedback about how safe their care is. In this project, the hospital team will harness volunteers to promote the wider implementation of PRASE which will be rolled out across the Bradford Royal Infirmary, St Luke’s Hospital and the district’s community hospitals. It will also be trialled at Barnsley Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, Hull and East Yorkshire Hospitals NHS Trust. Staff from the Bradford Institute for Health Research which is based at Bradford Royal Infirmary will evaluate the project. Dr Robin Jeffrey, the project leader, discusses the project.

Length of Publication:  1 web page

Learning from preventable deaths: exploring case record reviewers’ narratives using change analysis

Source: Journal of the Royal Society of Medicine 107/9 pp. 365-75.

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Date of publication:  September 2014

Publication type:  Journal article

In a nutshell: The authors set out to determine if applying change analysis to the narrative reports made by reviewers of hospital deaths in acute NHS Trusts in 2009 increases the utility of this information in the systematic analysis of patient harm. The change analysis approach enabled explicit characterisation of multiple problems in care, both across the admission and also at the boundary between primary and secondary care, and illuminated how these problems accumulate to cause harm. The method was straightforward to apply to multiple records and achieved good inter-rater reliability. Analysis of case narratives using change analysis provided a richer picture of healthcare-related harm than the traditional approach.

Length of Publication:  11 pages

The challenges in monitoring and preventing patient safety incidents for people with intellectual disabilities in NHS acute hospitals: evidence from a mixed-methods study

Source:  BMC Health Services Research 14 pp. 432

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Date of publication:  September 2014

Publication type:  Journal article

In a nutshell: There is evidence that people with intellectual disabilities in acute hospitals are at risk of preventable deterioration due to the reasonable adjustments that they need not being implemented. This article aimed to explore the challenges in monitoring and preventing patient safety incidents involving people with intellectual disabilities. It describes the patient safety issues that patients with intellectual disabilities in NHS acute hospitals encounter and investigates underlying contributory factors. The events leading to avoidable harm for patients with intellectual disabilities are not always recognised as safety incidents.

Length of Publication:  1 web page

Codifying knowledge to improve patient safety: A qualitative study of practice-based interventions

Source:  Social Science and Medicine 113 pp. 169-176

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Date of publication:  June 2014

Publication type:  Journal article

In a nutshell:  Knowledge codification is the conversion of implicit or tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge so that it is effective for making change. Patient safety interventions were implemented by two NHS hospitals through the codification of knowledge. One hospital introduced a structured mortality review process and another hospital used a medication safety scorecard on a general medicine and elderly care ward. Codification helped staff learn about patient safety by structuring the sharing of tacit knowledge. Good organisational governance and support is needed to help translate knowledge across levels.

Length of Publication:  8 pages