Topic 1 DQ 2 In preparation for your assignment this week, brainstorm two to three clinical practice problems or issues you can develop into a nursing practice change. What indicates these are clinical issues in nursing practice? Support your discussion with two peer-reviewed journal articles. Expert Answer and Explanation

Clinical settings face various challenges that have negative implications on patient safety. Among the common challenges are hospital-acquired infections. Hospital-acquired infections are a wide range of infections ranging from central line-associated bloodstream infections, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, and ventilator-associated pneumonia, and hold a significant burden to patients, payers, and the facility. Research has shown that the prevalence rate of HAIs is 7.5% in high-income countries and varies between 5.7 and 19.2 in low-income countries (Raoofi et al., 2023).

If left uncontrolled, they can lead to longer hospital stays, increased care costs, poor patient outcomes, lower patient satisfaction scores, and low job satisfaction among care providers. Another challenge that is common in clinical settings is medication errors. Research estimates indicate that around 500,000 medication errors occur annually, which indicates a significant burden on the healthcare system (Rasool et al., 2020).

Some of the consequences of medication errors include higher rates of hospitalization, decreased patient satisfaction, and a growing lack of trust in the healthcare system. The third clinical issue is poor nursing handover communication. Handover communication plays a critical role in ensuring there is a proper transition of responsibility and accountability in patient care among nurses.

Without effective handover communications, patients face a risk of being exposed to other clinical issues such as medication errors, disconnect in patient-centeredness in care delivery, and ultimately, lower patient satisfaction (Pun, 2021). These three issues are critical in determining the quality of care and are among the most common clinical problems healthcare facilities experience.

References

Pun, J. (2021). Factors associated with nurses’ perceptions, their communication skills, and the quality of clinical handover in the Hong Kong context. BMC Nursing, 20(1), 1-8. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-021-00624-0

Raoofi, S., Pashazadeh Kan, F., Rafiei, S., Hosseinipalangi, Z., Noorani Mejareh, Z., Khani, S., & Ghashghaee, A. (2023). Global prevalence of nosocomial infection: A systematic review and meta-analysis. PloS One, 18(1), e0274248. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0274248

Rasool, M. F., Rehman, A. U., Imran, I., Abbas, S., Shah, S., Abbas, G., & Hayat, K. (2020). Risk factors associated with medication errors among patients suffering from chronic disorders. Frontiers in Public Health, 8, 531038. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2020.531038