Patient safety issues in advanced practice nursing students' care settings

Area of Science:

• Nursing
• Patient Safety
• Health Informatics

Background:

• Advanced practice nursing (APN) plays a crucial role in various healthcare settings, including ambulatory care.
• Identifying and understanding patient safety issues within APN practice is essential for quality improvement.
• Previous research has highlighted the need to investigate safety concerns specific to APN roles.

Purpose of the Study:

• To identify and characterize patient safety issues encountered in advanced practice nursing (APN) care settings.
• To analyze the types of safety issues, focusing on diagnosis, management, and treatment.
• To explore potential strategies for mitigating identified patient safety risks.

Main Methods:

• An online survey was administered to 162 registered nurses enrolled in an APN education program.
• Respondents reported on patient safety issues observed in 489 clinical encounters.
• Data analysis focused on the frequency and nature of reported safety concerns.

Main Results:

• Nearly half of the 489 reported encounters involved patient safety issues related to diagnosis or management and treatment.
• Clinician communication problems with patients were the most frequent issue, occurring in 42.4% of encounters.
• Other reported issues included diagnostic errors and medication management concerns.

Conclusions:

• Patient safety issues, especially communication breakdowns, are prevalent in advanced practice nursing.
• The findings suggest that enhancing clinician-patient communication is critical for improving safety.
• Adoption of health information technology is proposed as a potential solution to address safety concerns in APN practice.