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LEARNING OUTCOMES
 At the completion of this unit learners will be able to:
1. Define safety
2. Describe the characteristics of safety
3. Identify physical and microbial hazards in environment
4. Discuss various ways to minimize hazards
5. Discuss the assessment for environmental safety
6. Identify physical and microbial hazards in the hospital environment, which interfere with
patients’ safety
7. Explain general preventive measures for safe environment for health team members and patient
8. Using assessment, identify people at risk for safety dysfunction.
SAFETY!
Safety is a concept that includes all measures and practices
taken to preserve the life, health, and bodily integrity of
individuals.
S-Sense the error
A – Act to prevent it
F – Follow Safety Guidelines
E – Enquire into accidents/Deaths
T – Take appropriate remedial measure
Y – Your responsibility
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WHY SAFETY IN THE HOSPITAL?
 Hospital is a people intensive place
 Provide services to sick people round the clock 24
hours daily 365 days a year.
 People have a free access to enter any part of the
hospital any time for advice and treatment
 The hospital atmosphere is filled with emotions,
excitement, life & happiness, death & sorrow
 Since hospital operates under continuous strain, it gives
rise to irritation, confrontation, conflicts & aggression,
threatening the life of hospital staff & hospital 4

properties
 IMPORTANCE OF SAFETY
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Safety is always the top priority.
 Safety is important for moral reasons: morally speaking, no
one wants to get hurt, and no one is happy that someone else
gets hurt.
 Safety is important for economic reasons: when you are
involved in accident, you spend money. Thus may be detrimental
to your business.
 Safety is important for legal reasons: since safety is a law,
non-compliance will attract punishment in terms of fines,
imprisonment or your business may be shut-down by regulatory
bodies.
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PATIENT SAFETY

 Patient safety is the absence of preventable harm to a patient during

the process of health care.
 The discipline of patient safety is the coordinated efforts to prevent
harm to patients, caused by the process of health care itself.
 It is generally agreed upon that the meaning of patient safety is…
“Please do no harm”

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 In most cases fault is not willful
negligence, but systemic flaws,
inadequate communication and wide-
spread process variation and patient
ignorance.
 People responsible are the doctors,
nurses, pharmacists , technicians and
Patient.
TYPES OF ERRORS

1. Adverse Health Care Event – event or omission arising during clinical care and causing physical or
psychological injury to a patient
2. Error – failure to complete a planned action as intended, or the use of an incorrect plan of action to achieve
a given plan
3. Health Care Near Miss – situation in which an event or omission (or sequence) arising during clinical care
fails to develop further, whether or not as the result of compensating action, thus preventing injury.
4. Adverse Drug Reaction – any response to a drug which is noxious, unintended and occurs at doses used
for prophylaxis, diagnosis or therapy. Predictable/Unpredictable
5. Medication Error – any preventable event that may cause or lead to inappropriate medication use or
patient harm while the medication is in the control of health professional, patient or consumer
6. Sentinel error- Surgery on the wrong body part
Surgery on the wrong patient 12

Patients receiving wrong medication

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Safety Hazards Throughout Our Life Span
 Fetus : x-rays, maternal smoking and alcohol
 Infants: falling, choking, crib injuries, poisoning
 Toddlers: burns, poisoning, electric shocks
 Preschoolers: traffic injuries, harm from people & animals
 Adolescents: vehicular injuries, substances abuse
 Older adults: falling, burns, pedestrian and automobile
crashes
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15 FACTORS AFFECTING SAFETY
The ability of people to protect themselves from
injuries affected by:

Age Lifestyle Cognitive

Ability to
awareness &
communicate
Safety Awareness

Emotional state Environmental factors Mobility & Health status

16 ASSIGNMENT!

 Write down the types of safety

hazards and enlist factors
affecting safety.
PROMOTING SAFETY IN THE HEALTH CARE SETTING

 Client safety in health care setting is of primary importance.

 Nurses are frontline managers of client care and must be actively
involved in the priority of client safety and prevention of medical
errors.
 Communication is of utmost importance to protect clients from errors
and maintain continuity of care.
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Safety Hazards in Health Care Settings

Falls
Seizures
Burns
Suffocation
Poisoning
Noise
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FALLS

 People of any age can fall, but older adults and

infants are prone to falling.
 Falls are leading cause of injuries among older
adults especially 65 years of age and older and are
leading cause of injury related deaths.
 Poor vision, Weakness, Urination frequency and
medications etc. are some causes of Falls.
 Health care facilities have strong intensives to
reduce the number of client falls.
 HOW TO PREVENT FALLS?
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 TUG The Timed Up and Go test or TUG test is used to help evaluate your
mobility. It is a simple test that measures how quickly you can stand up,
walk 10 feet, turn around, walk back, and sit down. It is often done to
assess mobility in older adults or predict their risk of falls.

 Provide Walking aids and always keeps hospital beds in low position and
wheels locked and side rails or pads besides beds.

 Safety Monitoring Devices to detect when client attempt to move or

get out of bed.
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 SEIZURES
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Single temporary event that consist of uncontrolled electrical neuronal

discharge of the brain that interrupts normal brain functioning.
Classified in two categories:
Partial seizures: Electrical discharge from one area of brain.
Generalized Seizures: Affect whole brain.

Precautions
• Take showers instead of baths
• Don’t insert anything in mouth
• Turn the client to lateral position if possible during seizure
24 BURNS
o A burn results from excessive exposure to thermal chemical or
radioactive agents.
o Clients whose skin sensitivity is impaired are at risk.
o It is important for the nurse to assess how well the client and
what special precautions are needed to be taken.
o Burns can be due to fires in Health care settings. When the
smoke or fire is detected two mnemonics can help nurse:
25 MNEMONICS
RACE PASS
Rescue Pull out extinguisher
Alarm Aim the hose at the base of
Confine fire
Extinguish Squeeze the handle to
discharge material
Sweep the hose from side to
side across the base of fire
until the fire appear to be
out.
CHOKING OR SUFFOCATION

Suffocation or choking or asphyxiation is a lack of oxygen due to interrupted

breathing.
One common cause is that food or foreign object has logged in the throat.
Other causes of suffocation can be accidental coverage of nose or mouth, being
trapped in confined space, drowning or gas or smoke inhalation.
The emergency response for suffocation due to food or foreign object is Heimlich
maneuver.

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27 EXCESSIVE NOISE
Excessive noise is a health hazard that can cause hearing loss depending on:
a) Frequency
b) Overall level of noise
c) Duration of exposure
Physiological effects of sound include:
 Increased muscular activity
 Increased Heart rate
 Nausea
 Hearing loss
 BIOTERRORISM ATTACKS
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o Deliberate release of bacteria virus or other germs that cause illness

or death in people animals and plants.
o They are separated on the severity of illness they cause.
Category A , B , C
Examples
o Cat. A : Anthrax, Botulinum
o Cat. B : Epsilon toxin of Clostridium perfringens, Vibrio cholerae
o Cat. C : Nipah virus, Mycobacterium tuberculosis
SOME OTHER HAZARDS THROUGHOUT LIFE SPAN

• Snake Bites ear or nose

• Dog Bites • Electrical hazards
• CO poisoning • Radiations
• Firearms • Pathogens
• Frost bite • Pollution
• Sunstroke • Procedure and
• Drowning equipment related
accidents

• Foreign body in 29
 FIRST AID
First aid is the first and immediate assistance given to any person suffering
from either a minor or serious illness or injury, with care provided to preserve
life, prevent the condition from worsening, or to promote recovery.

Responsibilities of first aider:

Act Quickly but with calm and stable mind
Avoid crowd to gather around casualty
Identify nature of illness or injury
Arrange to move casualty to nearest hospital
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RESTRAINTS

 Restraint is defined as ‘the intentional restriction

of a person’s voluntary movement or behavior.
(Counsel and Care UK, 2002),
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REFERENCES
 Kozier & Erb's Fundamentals of
Nursing, 11th edition
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