Background: The increasing numbers of surgeries involving high risk, multi-morbid patients, coupled with inconsistencies in the practice of perioperative surgical wound care, increases patients’ risk of surgical site infection and other wound complications. Objectives: To synthesise and evaluate the …

Aims and Objectives: To analyse oral care delivery in one hospital through exploring experiences from both nurses’ and patients’ perspectives and examining patients’ oral health. Background: Oral health problems are associated with undernutrition and other general health outcomes. Although oral care …

Objectives: In the post-surgical setting, active involvement of family caregivers has the potential to improve patient outcomes by prevention of surgical complications that are sensitive to fundamental care. This paper describes the development of a theoretically grounded program to enhance the active …

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to improve medication safety for children; it is important to quantify the occurrence of preventable medication errors (MEs). A trigger tool may be an effective and time-saving strategy, but its measurement performance is unclear. Therefore, we aimed to estimate …

AIM: Implementation of a locally developed evidence based nursing shift handover blueprint with a bedside-safety-check to determine the effect size on quality of handover. METHODS: A mixed methods design with: (1) an interrupted time series analysis to determine the effect on handover quality in six …

Objective To develop, implement and evaluate a personalized patient discharge letter (PPDL) to improve the quality of handoff communication from hospital to home. Design From the end of 2006–09 we conducted a quality improvement project; consisting of a before–after evaluation design, and a process evaluation. …

OBJECTIVE: Standardization of the handover process is deemed necessary to ensure continuity and safety of care. However, local context is considered of equal importance to improve the handover process. Our objective was to determine what recommendations on standardized shift handover nurses make, if …

BACKGROUND: Many hospitalised patients are affected by medication errors (MEs) that may cause discomfort, harm and even death. Children are at especially high risk of harm as the result of MEs because such errors are potentially more hazardous to them than to adults. Until now, interventions to reduce …

BACKGROUND: One-third of all medication errors causing harm to hospitalized patients occur in the medication preparation and administration phase, which is predominantly a nursing activity. To monitor, evaluate and improve the quality and safety of this process, evidence-based quality indicators can …