Evaluation of a nurse-led safety program in a critical care unit.

This implementation of a formalized safety program in a critical care unit highlights the importance of the "voice of the caregiver," as it relates to patient safety. This nurse-led program featured executive walkrounds and a multidisciplinary core team whose goal was to prioritize and resolve safety issues identified during the 6-month study period. Unit nurses' scores on the Safety Attitudes Questionnaire remained stable from July 2011 to February 2012. Staff identified 77 safety issues during executive walkrounds; 57% were resolved during the study period. Results indicate the clinical significance of nurse-led patient safety programs.

Implementing Electronic Tablet-Based Education of Acute Care Patients.

Poor education-related discharge preparedness for patients with heart failure is believed to be a major cause of avoidable rehospitalizations. Technology-based applications offer innovative educational approaches that may improve educational readiness for patients in both inpatient and outpatient settings; however, a number of challenges exist when implementing electronic devices in the clinical setting. Implementation challenges include processes for "on-boarding" staff, mediating risks of cross-contamination with patients' device use, and selling the value to staff and health system leaders to secure the investment in software, hardware, and system support infrastructure. Strategies to address these challenges are poorly described in the literature. The purpose of this article is to present a staff development program designed to overcome challenges in implementing an electronic, tablet-based education program for patients with heart failure.