What’s new on the web?

Why is it that even when everyone is doing their best to provide high quality, dignified care, patient safety issues still arise? The RCN’s Learning Zone has launched a new online continuing professional development resource to help nursing staff understand the contributing factors to patient safety issues. It is called, “Making sense of patient safety” and is suitable for all nursing and health care staff across all care settings.

The online resource uses two real-life scenarios to follow the patient journey through each health care experience. A summary of the events concludes each scenario and learners can then focus on key learning points about patient safety. This includes a look at those things that commonly influence the way people work, so called human factors. These factors play a crucial part in why things go wrong. Understanding how they impact on people can help us develop tools and techniques to reduce the risk of preventable errors recurring in the future. The learning is freely available online.