Former nurse’s criminal conviction will have a ‘chilling effect’ on healthcare

As of May 2, DNV Healthcare will resume doing all its annual NIAHO® surveys onsite and unannounced now that COVID-19 rates are going down.

The conviction of former Vanderbilt nurse RaDonda Vaught for gross neglect of an impaired adult and negligent homicide will have a “chilling effect” on the culture of safety in healthcare, Robyn Begley, CEO of the American Organization for Nursing Leadership (AONL), said in a statement.

OSHA is asking for new comments on proposed revisions to a possible standard to protect healthcare workers from COVID-19 exposure after getting pushback on the original. You can also put your name in to testify at an informal hearing. The revisions potentially cover more than just the COVID-19 coronavirus.

I promise that this one will be on the briefer side of things, but sometimes a straightforward approach can work out pretty well.

CRM has two main parts. The first deals with teamwork and communication and covers the interpersonal and social aspects of the working environment. The second deals with human factors and situational awareness and entails understanding physical and cognitive limitations while outlining strategies to manage elements in the operational environ- ment, such as fatigue, high task load, distractions, and automation. Although there are many topics that descend from these two broad categories, for me it is a straightforward way to organize the basics of CRM.

Since 2020, the healthcare industry has lost nearly half a million workers, exacerbating staffing shortages that existed prior to the start of the pandemic. One of the hardest-hit areas is the pharmacy. As of September 2021, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projected there would be 43,000 pharmacist and pharmacy technician job openings each year throughout the next decade.

Pharmacies play a central role in patient care, storing, preparing, and delivering critical medications. A slowdown or breakdown in this important function can have wide-reaching implications, as medications are the primary method for treating patients inside and outside of healthcare facilities.

Ask any healthcare executive to name the biggest issue that will demand their attention in 2022, and the response will be staffing shortages and their impact on patient safety. Those focused on improving care quality might consider how key trends will play out and the impact of current industry challenges on their healthcare ecosystem.

Training and education in any professional role can help individuals improve their skills and learning competencies. Training and education opportunities, however, often get sidelined by day-to-day duties and lost in performance reviews. That should not be the case, and certainly when it comes to healthcare life safety compliance.

Training and education in this arena should be taken seriously, and it should be provided by experienced individuals, according to Ernest Allen, ARM, CSP, CPHRM, CHFM, life safety consultant. Life safety officials at hospitals and healthcare systems have plenty of opportunities for certifications and learning and should take advantage of them, he adds

Many years ago, I was hired to perform a safety audit for a laboratory. As I walked through one department, an employee asked what I was doing. When I remarked that I was looking for safety issues to keep her safe, she asked, “What are you keeping me safe from?” It was the right question. This employee was working in a lab where there were several safety violations and she didn’t notice any of them. Was it a lack of education? Was it a product of a poor lab safety culture? Why didn’t she see the danger she was in?