Safety And Ethics In Healthcare A Guide To Getting It Right

As more and more people survive into old age, the burden of caring for them becomes greater and greater. Although it is now possible to alleviate many of the afflictions that beset mankind, no society can afford to pay for all the healthcare that is now available or technically possible. People working in healthcare increasingly have to do more with less. Rationing takes many forms, mostly covert, and the less privileged in most societies end up struggling to get their proper share of the available healthcare resources. All too often, those in the front-line have to deal with the consequences of this 'rationing by default': healthcare professionals find themselves rushed off their feet simply doing the basic tasks and completing all the paperwork; placing frail, sick people in ever lengthening queues, sometimes asking them to wait for hours in the middle of the night under uncomfortable and even unsafe conditions; and, worst of all, working under conditions they would rather avoid in which the safety margin for those they are caring for has been greatly diminished. We are all aware that under these conditions the chance of making a mistake which can seriously harm or even lead to the death of a patient is greatly increased. But what can be done about this? How can you be sure that you are doing the right thing when faced with having to practise an uncertain science on vulnerable patients in a complex system under ever-changing conditions? At what point could you cross the invisible line from reasonable to irresponsible or unethical behaviour by tolerating conditions or tacitly accepting practices which may be regarded as unacceptable, even though you may have little immediate control over them? This book is a guide to getting it right for healthcare professionals. It is about doing the right thing, in the right way, at the right time, for the right people. These are the dimensions of quality in healthcare, and although some are in conflict (equitable access and efficiency, for example), adherence to ethical practice and professional behaviour will help lead healthcare practitioners through the minefield of responsibilities and priorities. Real-life situations are integral to the book, with over 500 clinical examples referred to within the text.

General Surgery Risk Reduction is part of the series: Surgery: Complications, Risks and Consequences edited by Brendon Coventry.

Being a Doctor is much more than simply providing medical care. This book aims to increase the resilience and wellness of doctors, helping the profession to provide better care for patients, through a deep and thoughtful approach to clinical work. It explores areas that can challenge clinicians in all stages of their career: the doctor - patient relationship, adverse outcomes, the 'heartsink' experience, and functional illness. The authors also introduce self-care of the doctor and patient safety, two important issues for modern medicine. This is a unique text that draws links between the philosophy of modern medicine and clinical tasks such as consulting skills, the doctor patient relationship, patient safety, reflective practice and doctors' self care. It is written in an accessible style and is firmly grounded in real-life clinical and teaching experience. The authors believe each doctor, as a person, is inseparable from the task of delivering medical care. Enhancing our ability to deliver that care is essential for patients, communities and society. Just as patients need 'whole person' care, the profession needs 'whole person' doctors. Being a doctor, and deriving meaning from clinical experience, are at the heart of this book.

Responding to the public concern caused by recent hospital scandals and accounts of unintended harm to patients, this author draws on her experience of analysing the health care systems of over a dozen countries and examines whether greater regulation has increased patient safety and health care quality. The book adopts a new approach to mapping developments in health care systems in Europe, North America and Australia and pieces together evidence of which regulatory strategies and mechanisms work well to ensure safer patient care. It identifies the regulatory bodies, the regulatory principles and the implementation strategies adopted to improve governance in health care systems and suggests a conceptual framework for responsive regulation. The book will be of interest to government actors, health care professionals and medico-legal scholars.

Written by prominent and internationally renowned scholars, Communicating Quality and Safety in Healthcare engages healthcare trainees from across medicine, nursing and allied health services in a comprehensive and probing discussion of the communication demands that confront today's healthcare teams.

How can we make health care processes safer and more consistent? How do we improve care outcomes for patients? With a range of coaching tips, activities, scenarios and reflective exercises, this book enables you to translate current research on patient safety in to everyday good practice, by increasing understanding of the key concepts and helping you to develop strategies to minimise the risk of patient harm. It focusses on Human Factors to support understanding of the relationship between human behaviour and fallibility, and the design of systems and processes, environments, tools, tasks and technology to improve patient safety. It also reflects the WHO Patient Safety Curriculum. Patient Safety is an essential text for all healthcare professionals.

The first edition of Handbook of Human Factors and Ergonomics in Health Care and Patient Safety took the medical and ergonomics communities by storm with in-depth coverage of human factors and ergonomics research, concepts, theories, models, methods, and interventions and how they can be applied in health care. Other books focus on particular human factors and ergonomics issues such as human error or design of medical devices or a specific application such as emergency medicine. This book draws on both areas to provide a compendium of human factors and ergonomics issues relevant to health care and patient safety. The second edition takes a more practical approach with coverage of methods, interventions, and applications and a greater range of domains such as medication safety, surgery, anesthesia, and infection prevention. New topics include: work schedules error recovery telemedicine workflow analysis simulation health information technology development and design patient safety management Reflecting developments and advances in the five years since the first edition, the book explores medical technology and telemedicine and puts a special emphasis on the contributions of human factors and ergonomics to the improvement of patient safety and quality of care. In order to take patient safety to the next level, collaboration between human factors professionals and health care providers must occur. This book brings both groups closer to achieving that goal.

Covers how and why medication failures occur in anesthesia and the perioperative period, with essential information on safety interventions.