Patient and Employee Safety in the Intensive Care Unit

Abstract

Intensive Care Units; becase of a the use of high-tech and sophisticated monitoringmethods, and one or more organs or severe dysfunction of the organ systems of critical patients ofpossible medical errors due to the performance of care and treatment, poses a high risk to the pa-tient and staff safety. In literature; Intensive Care Units, operating units and emergency services arereported to have a high error rate resulting with serious consequences. As a result of medical errors;a decrease in patient and employee satisfaction, the fall of the quality of care, a loss of confidencein the health care system and an increase in health care costs occur. The most common errors are;medication errors, surgical errors, diagnostic errors, system-dependent errors, hospital acquired in-fections, blood transfusions, such as authentication errors. Excessive workload in the Intensive CareUnit, the small number of nurses, long working hours, the working environment exposed to physicaland chemical agents, stress and fatigue are the elements that threaten the employees’ safety. Harass-ment and physical violence and stab wounds are the most common items that threaten employeesafety. Intensive care units in patient and employee safety practices should be adopted as a cultural ex-change as well as a legal obligation and safety culture in health care institutions should be established.

Özet

Yoğun Bakım Üniteleri; yüksek teknoloji ve karmaşık mönitorizasyon yöntemlerinin kulla-