Like any field, Patient Safety has its own terminology and key ideas that a practicing professional needs to get under their belt.
Books for Patient Safety Professionals
This blog was created to cover different topics and challenges around patient safety. Still, sometimes a good book offers a structured and comprehensive approach like a collection of blog posts does not. The first batch of books looks at Patient Safety from a professional perspective. Further down the page, we look at patient safety as a story.
Medication Errors
by Michael R. Cohen
The book Medication Errors offers an in-depth look at factors contributing to medication errors and recommends steps for preventing them. Michael Cohen does a beautiful job of helping us understand the causes of medication errors. Understanding the shared responsibility for error prevention by all participants in the medication-use process and the need for heightened vigilance against errors with specific medications, patients, and conditions is essential.
The Checklist Manifesto
by Atul Gawande
As an anesthesiologist, I am a huge safe surgery checklist advocate. While the idea of checklists may be old news, many institutions still struggle with the culture and executing a well-done safe surgery checklist.
Preparing for Certification Exams
Becoming a patient safety professional means demonstrating competence through your work and studies. Often one has to come first. This is why I often recommend that junior faculty interested in patient safety do two things. First, find a problem and begin solving it so you will have a track record of improving patient safety. The second item is to obtain certification to demonstrate to others that you have training in addition to a track record of success.
HQ Solutions
by NAHQ
This book helps prepare for the Certified Profesional in Healthcare Quality certification exam.
Avoiding Error as a Patient and Family Member
While if have little experience as a patient myself, I have spent a significant amount of time as a patient’s family member / loved one. I always find it amazing how other individuals with me who are not healthcare providers can see our daily routines and actions from a very different perspective. It reminds us how far we still have to go towards making medicine a high-reliability experience for all patients.
The following books are for you as a family member to help keep your loved ones safe. As a medical professional, it will open your eyes to how outsiders view our systems and professions.
Avoiding Medical Errors: One Hundred Rules to Help You Survive Mistakes by Doctors and Hospitals
by Robert M. Fox and Chris Landon
The War on Error: A Hospital Field Manual
by WT Subalusky
The War on Error is a practical guide for patients and family members to help them avoid the multitude of medical errors that can occur during hospitalization.
Anatomy of Medical Errors: THE PATIENT IN ROOM 2
by DONNA HELEN CRISP
HQ Solutions
by NAHQ
This book helps prepare for the Certified Profesional in Healthcare Quality certification exam.
