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Patient safety

Patient falls while under supervision: trends from incident reporting

Within a large hospital trust in the UK, the number of falls within one particular division were studied to determine the number of falls reported while patients were under ‘one-to-one’ (1:1) or...

Improving nurses' blood transfusion knowledge and skills

Education and training are essential in blood transfusion to reduce the risk of adverse events (Jimenez-Marco et al, 2012). Improving knowledge and understanding and addressing the issue of patient...

Blood and blood products transfusion errors: what can we do to improve patient safety?

A literature search enabled the identification of relevant studies to be included in this review. Computerised databases including CINAHL, Medline and Cochrane were searched, with appropriate key...

Nurses' attitudes and barriers to incident reporting in Malta's acute general hospital

The healthcare system in Malta is based on the UK's NHS, being mainly free at the point of delivery. However, as Scerri (2014) states, there are dual systems of private and public health services. The...

Use of ankle–brachial pressure index to assess patient suitability for lower limb compression

The aim of this review is to critically review and analyse findings from contemporary literature to evaluate the effectiveness of the ABPI as a screening tool to assess patients' suitability for the...

Vascular access teams: a global outlook on challenges, benefits, opportunities, and future perspectives

Numerous vascular access devices (VADs) are placed worldwide annually,1 with up to 90% of all hospitalized patients undergoing catheter placement,2,3 resulting in substantial health care...

Perceived sleep quality: a comparison between hospital nurses and student nurses

Essentially, sleep is a neurobehavioural state and a fundamental part of human physiology that allows the brain and body to recover, improve physical and mental performance, and to prepare for another...

I-DECIDED®—a decision tool for assessment and management of invasive devices in the hospital setting

TheI-DECIDED® device assessment and decision tool is an evidence-based checklist (see Figure 1). This tool packages international clinical guidelines for invasive devices into a mnemonic algorithm for...

Using simulation exercises to improve student skills and patient safety

‘A technique to replace or amplify real experiences with guided experiences, often immersive in nature, that evoke or replicate substantial aspects of the real world in a fully safe, instructive and...

Implementing technology to support the deteriorating patient in acute care: evaluating staff views

To explore nursing staff and healthcare support worker views regarding the upcoming implementation of an electronic documentation and reporting system for an EWS in a tertiary referral inner city...

‘Hello, my name is …’: an exploratory case study of inter-professional student experiences in practice

‘I lost count of the number of times I have to ask staff members for their names. It feels awkward and wrong. Introducing yourself is the basic first step.’ .

An exploratory study into the teaching of clinical examination skills in advanced practice

‘Most errors in the physical examination … [which lead to adverse outcomes] … are related to not performing an examination.’ .

Changing practice for neuraxial applications using NRFit™ small-bore connectors to improve patient safety

The luer connector is an extremely versatile connector for joining a wide range of medical liquid and gas connecting tubes. It has been in use for over 100 years since it was designed by Karl...

Becoming fall-safe: a framework for reducing inpatient falls

The journey to reduce falls at BSUH began in April 2009. The catalyst for this work was, unfortunately, far from unique: a catastrophic fall leading to the death of a patient, a bereft family,...

How widely has ANTT been adopted in NHS hospitals and community care organisations in England and Scotland?

ANTT is a clinical practice framework for the education, practice and research of the critical clinical competency of aseptic technique. Based on a novel concept of Key-Part and Key-Site Protection,...

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