Patient Safety
Identify correctly, every time
Use two patient identifiers - full name and date of birth or hospital URN - never the bed number or a nickname. Check the identification band before every task, transfer, specimen and procedure. Look-alike and sound-alike medicine names and similar patient names are recurring causes of harm.
Medicine safety: the GDA boundary
A GDA may transport and store medicines, help a patient open a container, and remind a patient to take medicine already dispensed to them, but does not prepare, calculate, draw up or administer any medicine. Never leave a medicine at the bedside, never transfer a drug from one container to another, and never give a medicine on a verbal instruction unless the nurse confirms it.
Everyday harm-prevention habits
- Bed in the lowest position, wheels locked, call bell within reach.
- Two-hourly turning and skin inspection to prevent pressure injury.
- Hot water checked with the elbow; no hot water bottles on insensate skin.
- Oxygen away from flames, no oil or grease on fittings, no smoking.
- Restraints only when prescribed, released and observed at intervals, never tied to side rails.
- Clear floor, non-slip footwear, adequate light, correct use of side rails.
Incident reporting
Report near misses and adverse events through the hospital system, with time, facts and names. Reporting exists for learning, not punishment; hiding an incident is the serious error.
Worked example
Two inpatients are named Sunita Sharma and Sunita Shrama. A porter arrives to take Sunita for a scan. The GDA asks for the full name, checks the URN on the request form against the wristband, and finds a mismatch. She calls the nurse instead of sending the patient. Reasoning: the two-identifier rule breaks the error chain before harm occurs.
Traps
Inventing a reading, sending a patient on a verbal-only request, and raising side rails on a patient who climbs over them.