An exclusive interview: The nurse promoting continuing education across the field

In terms of creating a safer healthcare system, I think there's a lot of factors that come into play. First, I think healthcare organizations must adopt a safety culture, meaning leaders should establish safety as the highest priority. I think this should translate into having policies and procedures that focus on safety in all aspects of healthcare services. Another factor would be establishing a body that oversees safety. In the organizations I've worked with we have a quality and patient safety department, and a team that sets some metrics or key performance indicators they monitor to measure the risks, so we will be able to see if something is not going well and manage it at an early stage, thereby preventing harm from happening.

Also, we can use technology - a lot of organizations have been utilizing technology to build a safer healthcare system. So, for example, having an electronic prescribing system that helps prevent prescription errors, or having automated marketing systems that help prevent medication administration errors. But, as a nurse educator, I would say one of the main building blocks of creating a healthcare system is ensuring that you have a competent healthcare workforce, because when you have that it translates into having high-quality and safe care. If you have nurses, physicians, or allied health care workers who have the skills, the knowledge, the attitude, or the ability to provide safe care, then for sure the care received by patients will be of high quality and very safe.

Dr. Jose Arnold Tariga is a nurse with more than 13 years of experience in acute and long-term critical care settings, clinical education and training, and healthcare quality.

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