Bernice Odudu, MSN-Ed, RN, CMSRN,CNE’s Post

🚨 Common Nursing Mistakes and How to Fix Them 🚨 Even the Best Nurses Make Mistakes – But Growth Comes from Learning! Nurses are the backbone of healthcare, but like any profession, mistakes happen. Some errors are minor, while others can put patient safety at risk. Recognizing these mistakes and learning how to prevent them is what separates a good nurse from a great one! --- ❌ 5 Common Nursing Mistakes & How to Fix Them ✅ 1️⃣ Medication Errors 🔴 The Problem: Misreading prescriptions, incorrect dosages, or giving the wrong medication can lead to serious complications. ✅ The Solution: Always follow the "5 Rights" of medication administration: Right patient Right drug Right dose Right route Right time Double-checking and using barcode scanning systems can significantly reduce errors! --- 2️⃣ Poor Communication with the Healthcare Team 🔴 The Problem: Lack of clear communication between nurses, doctors, and other staff leads to confusion, delays, and even critical mistakes. ✅ The Solution: Use SBAR (Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation) for structured handovers. Repeat back important instructions for confirmation. Never hesitate to clarify unclear orders! --- 3️⃣ Ignoring Infection Control Protocols 🔴 The Problem: Rushing through hand hygiene, improper PPE use, or not disinfecting surfaces can spread infections. ✅ The Solution: Follow WHO's 5 Moments of Hand Hygiene. Change gloves between patients. Sanitize your hand before and after touching patient. Sanitize all equipment before and after use. Patient safety starts with infection prevention! --- 4️⃣ Lack of Proper Documentation 🔴 The Problem: Incomplete or inaccurate charting can lead to serious legal and medical consequences. ✅ The Solution: Document everything immediately after care is provided. Be clear, concise, and factual—avoid assumptions or vague language. If it’s not documented, it didn’t happen! --- 5️⃣ Wrong Patient Identification 🔴 The Problem: Mistaking a patient’s identity can result in serious medication errors, incorrect procedures, or misdiagnosis. ✅ The Solution: Always use two patient identifiers (e.g., name & date of birth) before any procedure or medication administration. Confirm identity with wristbands, electronic records, and verbal verification. Educate patients to speak up if they notice an error in their identification. 📢 Let’s Talk! What’s the most common mistake you’ve seen in nursing? How did you or your team fix it? Let’s learn from each other! Share in the comments below! 👇👇 #NursingTips #PatientSafety #NurseLife #HealthcareLeadership #MedicalErrors #NursingEducation #NursesOnDuty #QualityCare #LearnAndGrow #CCADAmbassadors

"NURSES ARE RUDE!" Well, I thought so too until I started my journey into the profession. The media hasn't been fair on nurses/ the image of nursing either. But are Nurses really rude? Who is a rude Nurse to the average Nigerian health seeker? Let's try to answer. A rude Nurse is: 👉 the Nurse who asks patients' relatives to leave when visiting hours are over. 👉 that Nurse who insists on having only 2 visitors to a patient at a time. 👉 that Nurse who tells the patients' relatives to sit on the chair instead of their patient's bed. 👉 that Nurse who didn't attend to you when you or your sick relative was screaming for help. Let's understand this. In a care setting, the patient is most important. All the health workers are important but the patient is 'IMPORTANTER". The entire team serves the patient. This is especially true for Nurses who are the first to have contact with the patient. If a Nurse tells you to not sit on her patient's bed, it's because she is considering her patient's comfort. A Nurse knows when her patient needs to rest. When a Nurse tells you visiting time is over, please understand her intention. It is for her patient's benefit. Imagine a scenario where all the patients in a ward have more than 3 visitors at a time and they be making noise, disturbing the hospital. Will the Nurse be unfair to send them out? For heaven's sake, it's a hospital NOT a market square. Additionally, people do not understand the concept of infection control. There's something called "Hospital Acquired Infection". When Nurses say do not enter, it's actually for your own good. As for that Nurse who didn't attend to you when you were screaming for help, she could be following a basic principle – TRIAGING. Imagine a Nurse is attending to two patients, patient A and patient B. Patient A has mild fever while patient B has a respiratory problem. Patient A has been screening for the Nurse's attention. An intelligent Nurse would give more priority to patient B because patient B's condition is more severe even though he/she is not screaming for help. In many cases, one Nurse attends to over 50 patients a day. This can be overwhelming. Nurses have emotions. They have weaknesses too. They can get tired. It is not an easy task. Since it's not all Nurses that are rude (obviously you have not had an encounter with all of them), when you want to talk about a sad experience you had with one or a few of them, you say "Nurse XYZ was rude to me" or "Nurse XYZ is a rude Nurse." DO NOT say "All Nurses are rude" or "Nurses are rude" simply because of that one experience. If you still believe otherwise, let's settle in the comment. Nurses, the first impression you give to your client matter. Make a good first impression. _______________________ I am Halimatu Abdullahi and I care about improving health outcomes. Kindly connect with me! #limahcares #nursesWeek #repost2020 📸 Becoming a Registered Public Health Nurse

The Office of Inspector General (OIG) for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued new Nursing Facility Industry Segment-Specific Compliance Program Guidance (Nursing Facility ICPG) for nursing facilities and skilled nursing facilities on November 20, 2024. Factors that have motivated the Nursing Facility ICPG include long-standing challenges around staffing, infection control, emergency preparedness, employee background checks, reporting of adverse events experienced by residents, inappropriate use of medications, and other compliance and quality issues. The Nursing Facility ICPG is the first industry-specific guidance published since the 2023 General Compliance Program Guidance (GCPG), which provided more general guidance to the entire health care compliance community. The Nursing Facility ICPG, together with the GCPG, serves as OIG's updated and centralized source of voluntary compliance program guidance for nursing facilities. This is the first update to OIG's nursing facility guidance since 2008. Read more: https://lnkd.in/e3crUx_q

It is disheartening that the public often views nurses merely as drug administrators or vital signs checkers, with little understanding of the vast scope of our profession. But what’s even more painful is seeing a nurse or nursing student with no deeper knowledge than this public perception. One can’t help but wonder how such individuals found their way into the profession. Why have we, as a profession, allowed this image to persist? Every nurse should recognize the power and potential within our field. This ignorance among some practitioners is contributing to the rise in nursing quackery. If those who claim to be professionals lack knowledge and fail to explore the possibilities of their role, how are they any different from someone who never stepped into a classroom? I recall a moment during clinical practice when our preceptors corrected us on how nurses write reports. They emphasized why we should say “according to the doctor’s prescription” rather than “according to the doctor’s order.” Such language diminishes the profession and perpetuates the misconception that nurses are merely assistants or subordinates. It’s also concerning that many nurses are unaware of certifications beyond RN, RM, RPHN, and Post Basic Nursing. Nursing is a dynamic field with countless opportunities for specialization and professional growth—certifications in infection control, oncology, critical care, health informatics, public health, and leadership, to name a few. Exploring these areas enhances our competence and reinforces the profession’s relevance in modern healthcare. The reality is that patient care is a collaborative effort. Nurses are not assistants to doctors; we are partners in the healthcare team, each bringing unique expertise to improve patient outcomes. It’s time for nurses to explore and embrace the full breadth of what nursing entails—going beyond vital signs and medication administration to embodying leadership, advocacy, and specialized knowledge in patient care. Some may be comfortable with the status quo, but it’s a disservice to the profession. What other steps do you think we need to take to improve nursing? Share your thoughts in the comments below.

Many ask me what sets my Skilled Nursing Facility aside from others? My answer is simple: We have created a culture of SAFETY, I'm proud to be one of the first HROs in LTC. Creating a High Reliability Organization (HRO) in long-term care settings is crucial for ensuring the safety and well-being of residents. Here are some key strategies and principles that can help achieve this: 1. **Mindfulness**: Foster a culture where all staff members are encouraged to be mindful and aware of potential risks and hazards. This involves promoting open communication, active listening, and a non-punitive approach to reporting errors or near misses. 2. **Preoccupation with Failure**: Encourage a proactive approach to identifying potential failures before they occur. This could involve regular risk assessments, root cause analysis of incidents, and continuous quality improvement initiatives. 3. **Reluctance to Simplify**: Avoid oversimplifying complex situations. Long-term care settings often involve multifaceted challenges related to patient care, medication management, and infection control. Staff should be trained to consider the broader context and potential interdependencies of their actions. 4. **Sensitivity to Operations**: Develop sensitivity among staff to recognize changes in conditions and potential issues on the ground level. This might involve implementing standardized protocols, checklists, and regular training sessions to enhance situational awareness. 5. **Commitment to Resilience**: Build resilience by preparing staff to adapt to unexpected situations. This includes cross-training employees, fostering teamwork, and ensuring that staff are equipped with the necessary resources and support to handle emergencies. 6. **Deference to Expertise**: Encourage a culture where frontline staff feel empowered to speak up and share their expertise. This involves valuing the insights and experiences of all team members, regardless of their position within the organization. 7. **Continuous Learning**: Promote a commitment to learning and improvement at all levels of the organization. This could include ongoing education, participation in conferences and workshops, and staying updated with the latest research and best practices in long-term care. 8. **Leadership Commitment**: Leadership plays a crucial role in establishing and maintaining a culture of safety and reliability. Leaders should actively support HRO principles, allocate resources for training and improvement initiatives, and serve as role models for staff. By implementing these principles, long-term care facilities can enhance safety, improve patient outcomes, and create an environment where residents receive high-quality care with minimal risk of harm.

Scottish Government’s Winter Preparedness Plan Must Address ‘Corridor Care’ The Royal College of Nursing is calling for the Cabinet Secretary for Health and Social Care to directly address the patient safety and dignity concerns associated with corridor care through the Winter Preparedness Plan being presented to Parliament this afternoon (24 September). The call comes as RCN Scotland Director Colin Poolman gives evidence to the Parliament’s health, social care and sport committee on the National Care Service (Scotland) Bill, highlighting that the focus on the National Care Service will do nothing to address the current crisis in capacity or tackle workforce shortages and recruitment and retention challenges within community health and social care services. Throughout the summer Scotland’s acute hospitals have continued to experience overcrowding, with the number of people waiting in excess of four hours in A&E during July at record levels and almost 2,000 people ready to leave hospital but waiting on packages of care and support in the community. Many of NHS Scotland’s health boards have implemented continuous flow models in an attempt to reduce the length of time patients have to wait within emergency departments. RCN Scotland has raised concerns about the risks associated with these models. In particular, the lack of recording and reporting of instances when patients are cared for in inappropriate areas such as corridors and treatment rooms or when additional beds are added to wards without the necessary staffing or equipment to ensure patient safety and dignity. The unacceptable pressures on hospital services are a direct result of the lack of capacity within community health and social care services. The Winter Preparedness Plan 2024-25 must acknowledge and address this. Over the summer, RCN Scotland asked members to share their experiences of care in appropriate places via the Sensemaker tool. Following is a sample of some of the comments made by members. Staff nurse: “Caring for an end of life patient (who subsequently passed away) in a six bedded busy medical ward. We just couldn't facilitate a side room due to infection control issues. Meanwhile management are still calling the ward to try and arrange transfers of additional patients to the ward - seventh patient in six bedded room. No curtains, no oxygen points, no sockets, no space. Two examples of no privacy nor dignity in care.” Senior charge nurse: “Caring for patients in corridors. Assessing people in relatives’ room and makeshift corners with screens in place. Knowing we can’t check patients’ skin or care for continence needs because we don’t have anywhere to do it - the endless daily cycle of this. Our reality every single day - no exception. The indignity and humiliation that our frail elderly population are subjected to every single day. We don’t meet patients’ basic needs.” Ahead of today’s statement, Colin Poolman, Director RCN Scotland said: “Our members have …

Title: "The Significance of Personal Hygiene in the Role of a Medical Nurse" Personal hygiene stands as a cornerstone of health and well-being, especially within the realm of healthcare where it holds paramount importance. For medical nurses, the significance of personal hygiene transcends mere cleanliness; it is a fundamental aspect of their practice that directly impacts patient care, infection control, and overall health outcomes. As frontline healthcare providers, nurses are tasked with not only treating illnesses but also preventing the spread of infections. Proper personal hygiene practices, such as regular handwashing, wearing appropriate protective gear, and maintaining cleanliness in healthcare environments, are essential components of infection control protocols. By adhering to these practices themselves and advocating for them among patients and colleagues, nurses create a safer and healthier environment for all. Furthermore, as trusted healthcare professionals, nurses serve as role models for patients in matters of personal hygiene. By demonstrating and educating patients on the importance of maintaining good hygiene habits, nurses empower individuals to take charge of their own health and well-being. Patients who adopt proper hygiene practices are less susceptible to infections, recover more quickly from illnesses, and experience improved overall health outcomes. In addition, promoting personal hygiene as a medical nurse extends beyond the clinical setting. Nurses also advocate for hygiene awareness in the community, participating in educational programs, public health campaigns, and outreach initiatives to raise awareness about the critical role of personal hygiene in preventing the spread of diseases. In conclusion, personal hygiene is not just a routine practice for medical nurses; it is a vital component of their role in ensuring the safety, well-being, and recovery of their patients. By prioritizing and promoting good hygiene practices, nurses contribute significantly to creating healthier environments, reducing the risk of infections, and fostering better health outcomes for individuals and communities alike. #Nafisa Kenin

ASSISTANT NURSING caregiver, CNA, HHA, Overview of Sequence of Steps Involved in an HAI Investigation Typically, the state, territorial, local or tribal public health authority is notified of a potential HAI outbreak by a healthcare provider or facility on the basis of laboratory or other HAIs surveillance data or as a result of recognizing an unusual infection cluster. Health departments might also detect potential outbreaks through surveillance or after being directly contacted by affected patients. The public health department can contact CDC for additional technical assistance. In certain instances, however, the healthcare facility's administrator contacts CDC directly; in that instance, CDC subject matter experts can provide technical advice, but they must coordinate with the state or local public health department before becoming involved in a field investigation. Depending on the scenario, initial steps taken by a public health authority might include the following: Public health department epidemiologists gather information and provide consultation to the healthcare facility reporting the potential outbreak. The public health department official begins an on-site investigation and considers inviting CDC to assist. The public health personnel and healthcare facility staff gather and analyze information through interviews, chart reviews, observations, and environmental sampling to identify a point source or practice that might have caused the outbreak. The public health personnel recommend new or revised measures to stop the outbreak and prevent additional HAIs. Field Investigation

Navigating the World of Agency Nursing in Aged Care and Acute Care: Key Tips for Success Working as an agency RN in aged care and acute care comes with unique dynamics compared to permanent roles. Here are some tips to help you thrive in these environments: - Understand Facility Expectations Take time to learn each facility's protocols and expectations around patient care, charting, and communication. - Master Time Management Establish a routine that helps you manage high-acuity patients and multiple residents effectively. - Keep Communication Clear and Consistent Strong communication is key to integrating quickly. Keep facility staff updated on any changes in patient conditions or care needs. - Stay Updated with Clinical Skills Aged care and acute care require distinct skills. Stay current with best practices, from infection control to palliative care. - Be Adaptable to Different Workflows Embrace new documentation systems (like EMRs) and care approaches as you move between facilities. - Prepare for Emotional Challenges Supporting older residents and acutely ill patients can be tough—take care of yourself and find ways to unwind after shifts. - Stay Organized with Documentation Familiarize yourself with common documentation systems, and ask about shortcuts that can save you time. - Advocate for Patient-Centered Care Always prioritize the needs of residents and patients, no matter how short your time at the facility. Be proactive in recommending care adjustments. - Embrace the Learning Opportunity Agency nursing offers the chance to broaden your skills across different settings. Use each shift as a chance to grow. Whether you’re in aged care or acute care, these tips can help you provide high-quality care while adapting to new environments.

#hiring RN / Emergency Nursing / Oregon / Full Time / Registered Nurse Job, Atlanta, United States, fulltime #jobs #jobseekers #careers #Atlantajobs #Georgiajobs #HealthcareMedical Apply: https://lnkd.in/gJh6BJ8E Assessment and Triage: Perform thorough patient assessments, prioritize care based on the severity of the condition, and initiate appropriate interventions.Patient Care: Administer medications, perform treatments, and assist with medical procedures in accordance with established protocols and physician orders.Documentation: Maintain accurate and detailed patient records, including vital signs, medical history, and treatment plans.Collaboration: Work closely with multidisciplinary teams, including physicians, surgeons, and support staff, to ensure optimal patient care and outcomes.Patient Education: Provide clear and empathetic explanations of conditions, treatments, and discharge instructions to patients and their families.Emergency Response: Respond effectively to medical emergencies, including cardiac arrests, trauma cases, and other critical situations, by following standardized protocols.Equipment and Supplies: Ensure all medical equipment and supplies are readily available, functioning correctly, and well-maintained.Safety and Infection Control: Strictly adhere to infection control protocols, maintain a safe environment for patients and staff, and report any potential hazards.Professional Development: Stay updated on the latest developments in emergency nursing and participate in ongoing training and professional development activities.