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PATIENT SAFETY FIRST
Accountability in
Nursing Practice: WhyIt Is Important for Patient Safety
http://crossmark.crossref.org/dialog/?doi=10.1016/j.aorn.2014.08.008&domain=pdf
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a patient may have religious preferences that preclude the administration of blood products or the implantation of human allograft tissue. As the patient advocate, the nurse needs to help ensure that the patient has the opportunity to discuss these preferences with the surgeon and anesthesia professional before the start of the procedure. The nurse also needs to understand the patients preferences for communication with his or her family members during and after surgery. Understanding and honoring these preferences protects the patients right to privacy. Advocacy also includes verifying that the correct patient is present and the correct procedure is performed and that it occurs at the correct site.
Advocacy includes the nurse speaking up on behalf of the patient in situations when safety issues arise. Speaking up needs to be done in a respectful, assertive manner that promotes high-quality care from the entire team. For example, when the peri-operative nurse is aware of a breach in sterile technique, he or she is accountable to speak up and bring it to the attention of the scrubbed team members regardless of who is responsible for the break in technique or what that persons position or seniority may be.
The AORN Journal is seeking contributors for the Patient Safety First column. Interested authors can contact Sharon A. McNamara, column coordinator, by sending topic ideas to mailto:[email protected]
Web End [email protected] .
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aorn.2014.08.008
Web End =http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.aorn.2014.08.008
AORN, Inc, 2014 November 2014 Vol 100 No 5 AORN Journal j 537
E, MN, RN, CNOR; VICTORIA M. STEELMAN, PhD, RN, CNOR, FAAN
Accountability is an essential component of professional nursing practice; accountability also is an essential component of
patient safety. The American Nurses Association
Code of Ethics states that the denition of accountability is to be answerable to oneself and others for ones own actions.1 As perioperative nurses, we are accountable to our patients and their family members, our colleagues, our workplace, and our profession. Because of this, perioperative nurses should hold themselves accountable for patient advocacy, continuity of care, lifelong learning, to colleagues, the nursing profession, and their organization.
PATIENT ADVOCATE
Perioperative nurses have a responsibility to act on behalf of patients...