NR 584NP Week 3 Collaboration Café_Healthcare Errors

Management and administrators should encourage continued education and training as it ensures their staff are updated on the current medical information and patient safety practices. Supporting staff to get further certifications will also benefit patient outcome goals for the unit. The legal and regulatory frameworks are not adequate to address healthcare errors in the state of New York. A start to help ensure better patient outcomes and satisfaction would be better nurse- to-patient ratios. New York passed the Senate Bill S1168A which requires hospitals to adhere to average ratios established by specialty units. They do not put into consideration extra support staff into these ratios and often times hospitals continue to be short-staffed making this legislation pointless. The state of California is the only state with mandated nurse-patient ratios based on the nursing specialty. Crating legislation that actually ensures safe nurse-to-patient ratios would be a small start to addressing healthcare errors but make a significant difference in addressing healthcare errors. In conjunction with better legislation protecting nurse-to-patient ratios, there needs to be better education and training initiatives. Hospitals are so quick to throw their young into working independently even if their orientees don’t feel quite comfortable due to staffing and budgeting constraints. Oftentimes, nurse preceptors are unexpectedly instructed to train new staff without being properly trained themselves. I have often seen the blind lead the blind in the hospital which is terrifying considering another person’s life is at the other end of their care. Many factors need to be changed in government policy, and regulatory frameworks to better support high-quality care which addresses the risks and consequences of healthcare errors. Collaboration between healthcare stakeholders, policymakers, and patient advocacy groups is essential to implement these changes effectively.