Date of Award

Winter 2018

Project Type

Clinical Doctorate

College or School

CHHS

Program or Major

Doctorate of Nursing Practice

Degree Name

Other

Abstract

Interventions to Increase Safety Event Reporting by Unlicensed Patient Care Technicians

Abstract

Background

Patient safety is an area of focus for healthcare providers, consumers, and regulatory agencies in the United States. To maintain a culture of safety and high reliability within the hospital setting all team members must engage in reporting safety events. Unlicensed patient care technicians (PCTs) are integral members of the care team however the frequency of reporting of safety events by these caregivers is less than other roles.

Purpose

The goal of this project was to increase the frequency of reporting by unlicensed patient care technicians by providing reporting education and implementing a standardized process for providing feedback and communication when safety event reports are submitted.

Methods

PCTs received training about safety event reporting and performed a return demonstration. Interventions were evaluated with a post-implementation survey and frequency of safety event reporting by PCTs.

Results

This quality improvement project did not produce evidence that the interventions resulted in an increase of reporting of safety events by PCTs. Pre-intervention frequency of PCT reporting was 0.64% of total safety events reported during the 5- month period preceding the training. Post-training the PCTs reported 0.80 % of the total number of safety reports for the service. Barriers to reporting were identified as time and ease of using the reporting system.

Keyword: patient safety; reporting; safety event; quality improvement

Share

COinS