The Safety in Healthcare course describes the importance of safe patient care, offers strategies for engaging patients and families in care processes, and provides critical thinking exercises that allow nurses to practice identifying examples of adverse situations, human factors associated with errors, and safe team practices.

A total of 1.25 Nursing contact hours have been awarded for this activity by the Michigan Public Health Institute – Continuing Education Solutions (MPHI CES 202863491).

Michigan Public Health Institute-Continuing Education Solutions (MPHI-CES) is approved as a provider of nursing continuing professional development by the Louisiana State Nurses Association - Approver, an accredited approver by the American Nurses Credentialing Center's Commission on Accreditation.

Safety in Healthcare -- Objectives

After completing this course, you should be able to:

1. Identify the driving forces in patient safety;
2. Understand the interrelationship of and difference between safety and quality;
3. Define the elements of safe team practice in a culture of safety;
4. Identify examples of adverse situations and how they affect patient safety;
5. Describe the core concepts of patient and family engagement, and how they impact patient safety;
6. Identify examples of the four Es (Engage, Educate, Execute, and Evaluate) of partnering with patients, their families, and other informal caregivers;
7. Identify behaviors and human factors associated with errors; and
8. Define error types and how they relate to an adverse event.

100% of participants will pass a post test after each section with a cumulative quiz score of 84% or higher demonstrating knowledge of appropriate communication techniques and behavior.

About the Author

As a senior principal member of the of the IBM/Watson Health consulting team, Sara Atwell brings over 30 years of healthcare experience in hospital operations, clinical quality improvement, patient safety, service excellence, physician alignment and system transformational change. Atwell supports the Value Based Care consulting practice in sales, project management and service delivery for large integrated health systems. She works directly with healthcare executives in achieving superior outcomes in a variety of value based care models and metrics.

Atwell served in multiple leadership roles before joining the IBM/Watson Health consulting practice. Most noteworthy was a 14 year position as the Chief Quality, Patient Safety and Service Excellence Officer for Oakwood Healthcare System. Sara worked directly with the Board and executive leaders to design and execute the quality strategic plan that supported achievement of clinical excellence in Quality and Patient Safety.

Atwell served in multiple leadership roles before joining the IBM/Watson Health consulting practice. Most noteworthy was a 14 year position as the Chief Quality, Patient Safety and Service Excellence Officer for Oakwood Healthcare System. Sara worked directly with the Board and executive leaders to design and execute the quality strategic plan that supported achievement of clinical excellence in Quality and Patient Safety.

The assistance and many contributions of Sara Atwell and Shari Carson to the development of the Safety in Healthcare module are acknowledged with thanks.

View Purpose, Objectives, and Disclosures (PDF)