Patient safety and healthcare quality are deeply linked and central in improving the well-being of patients. According to the Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion (ODPHP) (2020), healthcare quality encompasses effective, timely, safe, patient-centered, efficient, and equitable care. Patient safety is considered a priority and an essential aspect of healthcare quality. It is achieved when healthcare systems strive to avoid mistakes, learn from arising mistakes, and create a positive safety culture that involves patients, organizations, and health care professionals. The course has had a positive impact on the students’ knowledge of patient safety and healthcare quality.
Through this course, students learned that patient safety, and healthcare quality is a shared responsibility. Everyone, including the government, patients, researchers, individual nurses, and administrators, has a role to play to ensure quality healthcare services are offered safely (ODPHP, 2020). Scholars were reminded that patients have the right to be heard and receive clear and proper education about ailments and treatments. They are no longer passive recipients as it was in the past (Oldland et al., 2020). Besides, nurses have a critical role to play in ensuring the delivery of safe and efficient health care. Since they are in the first line of care, they are required to apply their critical thinking skills when offering their services.
As a result, there has been an improved delivery of patient care through organized and systematic techniques, which aim at improving healthcare quality and safety. Since the healthcare quality is patient-centered, health officials now have to offer responsive, value-based, and respectful care to all patients (Oldland et al., 2020). Additionally, nurses and doctors have become proactive in improving their services, foreseeing, and finding solutions to expected issues. Therefore, the course reinforced the need for all nurses to embrace healthcare quality and patient safety in their daily activities.
References
Office of Disease Prevention and Health Promotion. (2020). About health care quality | health. Web.
Oldland, E., Botti, M., Hutchinson, A., & Redley, B. (2020). A framework of nurses’ responsibilities for quality healthcare — Exploration of content validity. Collegian, 27(2), 150-163. Web.