Selecting A Prevention Of Medical Errors Course

By Imelda Reid


When a report was published in the 1990s by the Institute of Medicine in the United States, it became obvious just how many patients were dying as a result of ignorance regarding proper safety precautions. It was shocking to discover that more patients were dying from a failure in this regard than from motor vehicle accidents or cancer. As a result of this report, there has been a focus on patient safety by the medical profession. Practitioners are able to continue their education online by taking a prevention of medical errors course.

An online search reveals that many providers are offering such courses. Many of these can even be taken online. When selecting a particular provider, it is important to find one that is recognized by the necessary medical authorities. The content of such courses is important and a recognized provider will offer the right content.

The learning objectives of such courses are to identify error-prone situations and factors that increase risk. Strategies are learned to reduce their occurrence. Populations that are particularly vulnerable are also identified. Root cause analysis and reporting requirements are covered too.

The courses should also offer an indication of events that should never, ever occur and that are usually not covered by medical aids if they occur. Some of these events are air embolisms, foreign objects left in patients after surgery and blood incompatibilities. An issue such as wrong surgery on a patient or surgery on the wrong patient should never, ever occur but it does still happen. Various conditions that are frequently misdiagnosed should also be covered such as cardiac, cancer and neurological related illnesses. Another issue is the time taken to respond to complications of surgery.

Most of these courses are two hours long. The information is usually clear and concise and if offered online, this affords individuals with great convenience, making compliance easy. One can go online, register and take a course without having to pay too much, find a specific venue or take it as a specific time and place.

There are courses available for all kinds of medical practitioners. Many of available that are suitable for nurses but there are also ones available for most other practitioners in the medical field.

In the United States there is an electronic tracking system. A provider of continued education should report credits to the official tracking systems used to determine compliance. Certain states such as Florida require practitioners to complete a two hour course in order to receive their license or renew it. If the continuing education records of a practitioner are complete, they are able to renew their license without interruption.

Every practitioner, no matter how experienced, can benefit from the material provided. There are still far too many patients dying unnecessarily due to human error. Every practitioner has a responsibility to make sure that a patient does not die due to an unnecessary error. Courses like this help to promote patient safety and hopefully with enough practitioners focusing on this, the statistics of unnecessary patient death will improve over time.




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