¶ … Consent Regarding Qsen Competencies14 The following paper describes patient safety as being one of the concerns of patient care. It also discusses the QSEN competency related to patient safety. Moreover, the paper describes the significance of patient safety with reference to the QSEN competency. A review of literature and a case example related to the aforementioned topics are also included. Lastly, the paper gives implications related to better patient safety.

Patient Care Concern

Health is very important to everyone and therefore, people pay a great deal of attention to their health problems and concerns. The nursing staff taking care of patients is also concerned about the issues that the patient may face. As the patient starts getting medical help, there are multifarious issues and concerned that, he may encounter. The nurses must then keep these issues in mind in order to ensure a healthy recovery of the patient. (Scott, 2003)

Among these issues, provision of information is an issue, which is very critical. The nurses taking care of patients in a full day or part time setting should provide complete and reliable information to the patients. The provision of information is necessary for the patient in order to make correct decisions about their treatment and medication. If the patient is aware of the problem they are facing and they are briefed about the treatment options correctly, they will be fully aware of the problem and the proposed solutions before taking a decision. (Woolf & Chan et al., 2005)

Informed consent means informing the patient and his family about the disease and the proposed solution so that they make a correct decision. It is a legal duty of medical staff and institution to obtain informed consent from the patient or in some cases, the patients' representatives. Therefore, the nurses should be careful about providing the correct and relevant information to the patient. (Barry & Edgman-Levitan, 2012)

There is a change in the decision making process nowadays. Previously, the doctors were considered the supreme authority. Nowadays, the patient is given a greater say in the medical treatment processes and options. This is because of a major shift to patient-centered care. (Krumholz, 2010)

In addition, the internet has made the people familiar to a plethora of treatment options and therefore, people prefer their own choices rather than agreeing to the options given to them. Moreover, the doctors also feel that it is their moral duty to inform the patient about all the available options and the benefits and drawbacks associated with them. The final decision should remain with the patient and his family. (Woolf & Chan et al., 2005)

Lastly, the doctors and the medical staff believes that the patients who are informed about the available options and the disease itself do not contest the quality of care provided. Moreover, the decision is made by the patient and therefore the responsibility of adverse effects also remains with him. Therefore, informed consent is beneficial to both the medical staff and the patients and has a very strong relationship with patient safety. (Woolf & Chan et al., 2005)

Despite the fact that the informed consent is beneficial to both the sides, there are still information failures. One of the major reasons behind these failures is that the physicians and the medical staff are very busy in their routine and they cannot take out time to inform the patients about the problems and their detailed solutions. (Woolf & Chan et al., 2005)

QSEN Competency

QSEN institute has developed a set of competencies, which act as outlines to mark the knowledge, skills and attitudes to be developed in an individual before licensure or graduation. The main objective of these competencies is to inject the necessary skills and to improve the behavior of nurses. Following these competencies, the nurses are able to provide better care to the patients keeping in mind all the technicalities that may arise. (Batalden & Bednash et al., 2014)

The relevant competencies are informatics and patient safety. Many pieces of knowledge, skills and attitudes should be given to the nurse in order to ensure smooth information flow and better patient safety. First of all, the nurses should analyze the design and the theory of system that applies to the provision of the information to the patient. They should then follow the design and develop skills of using tools that improve the performance of the medical staff in the provision of information. The nurses must also develop the skill to employ project management methods in order to implement new technologies. The...

To develop these skills, the nurses must value the importance of a proper design of information system. In addition, the nurses must also understand the importance of the information to the patient and his family. (Batalden & Bednash et al., 2014)
Secondly, the nurses should identify the procedures that ensure the safety of patients and the community. For that, the nurses must have the skill to use multiple strategies that work together to reduce the risk of damage to the patient, the community and the nurse himself. The competency also requires the nurses to develop a habit of valuing the procedure of risk reduction. The nurses should keep in mind that reduced risk will lead to better patient safety conditions. (Batalden & Bednash et al., 2014)

Moreover, the nurses should pinpoint the safety design of the human factors that affect the patient safety. The nurses should also spot out the practices, which can be hazardous for patient safety. In order to accomplish the aforementioned task, the nurses must concentrate on the system whenever small errors occur. In addition, the nurses should also show leadership qualities and create an environment where safety design rules are made and implemented efficiently. Lastly, the nurses should also encourage the use of systems that do not rely on memory so that the risk of accidents can be reduced. In order to develop these qualities, the nurses must first accept the limitations of human beings and give importance to the system. (Batalden & Bednash et al., 2014)

Furthermore, the nurses should also find out strategies that will make the organization reliable. To accomplish that, the nurses must demonstrate the skills of analyzing the human factors and making a good strategy to avoid mistakes that were committed previously. The nurses should also give information about the errors and narrow escapes to the healthcare team. Moreover, the nurses must also develop the skill to foretell the accidents and therefore, avoid it. Nurses must build a positive attitude towards working hard to accomplish the desired reliability. They must also be honest with the patients about the errors and must encourage them to report errors as well. In addition, the nurses should also understand the importance of reliability to patient safety. (Batalden & Bednash et al., 2014)

Apart from that, the nurses should also try to find the root cause of the errors and then set evidence-based procedures in response of these errors. The nurses should have the skills to use evidence-based tests to set procedures for the errors. In addition, the nurses must also be able to apply changes to the root of the error once it is identified. The nurses must develop a postitive attitude towards the identification of errors and towards the accountability of the responsible party. In addition, the nurses must also understand the importance of error reporting system in an organization. (Batalden & Bednash et al., 2014)

In addition to that, the nurses must have the knowledge to inhibit the use of offensive language and actions that may harm the patient and the staff. To accomplish that, the nurses must exhibit the skills to develop a culture of respect and affection for patients and staff. Moreover, the nurses must also report the hostile and offensive behavior legally. The nurses should have an appreciative demeanor for a respectful culture at the workplace. (Batalden & Bednash et al., 2014)

The efforts made by the government and the nation to enforce patient safety also affects the safety conditions in private medical institutes. The nurses must analyze the effect and use it to improve the safety conditions in the workplace. The nurses must also have a positive mindset towards the relation between the national safety attempts and patient safety. (Batalden & Bednash et al., 2014)

Significance of Patient Safety in Relation to QSEN Competencies

There is a prominent relationship between patient safety and the decision made by the patients. If the patient is aware of the options and makes the correct choice, the chances of success increase dramatically. When a patient makes uninformed decisions, the chances of medical errors and poor quality of care increases. Moreover, a wrong surgery is also a direct consequence of the decision made by the patient without being given complete information about the disease. (Rao, 2008)

Different mistakes can lead to adverse effect on the patient, which is not a desired outcome of the medical practices. The legal duty of the medical staff is to provide the patietns with complete details in order to ensure the safety of…