AHRQ Patient Safety Network: Work-arounds observed by fourth-year nursing students.

AHRQ Patient Safety Network



Work-arounds observed by fourth-year nursing students.

Westphal J, Lancaster R, Park D. West J Nurs Res. 2014;36:1002-1018.

According to this study, nursing students frequently observed registered nurses performing workarounds, or deviations from intended work practices, due to time constraints. Respondents reported that nurses did not adhere to recommended procedures for infection control and often failed to use medication use technology such as barcode medication administration or patient-controlled analgesia pumps correctly. These results are consistent with prior studies linking nurse understaffing to patient safety problems.

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