Useful resources

This learning area has been compiled from a range of evidence. You may now be motivated to go deeper into the topic so a range of different resources are listed below and wherever possible we have tried to create direct links to them. Where direct linking is not possible we provide information on where sources can be accessed. These listings will get you started and as a lifelong learner you will be able to identify other sources beyond these that are specifically relevant to you.

If you find other useful material then perhaps you could share this by providing the details, or even writing a review and submitting this to learning.zone@rcn.org.uk where we will consider it for addition to the site.

If you don't find what you want in the list then good starting points for further exploration are the RCN Library Catalogue for books or the BNI (British Nursing Index) database for journals.

Books/Reports

Croskerry P (et al) (2009) Patient safety in emergency medicine, Philadelphia: Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Available to borrow from the RCN UK Library.

Currie L (Editor) (2007) Understanding patient safety, London: Quay Books.Available to borrow from the RCN UK Library.

The Health Foundation (2010) Snapshot: patient safety, London: The Health Foundation. Available online.

Kristensen S, Mainz J and Bartels P (2007) A patient safety vocabulary: safety improvement for patients in Europe (PDF 162KB). SimPatIE - work package 4, Aarhus: European Society for Quality in Healthcare. Available online.

Patient Safety First (2010) Implementing human factors in healthcare ‘how to’ guide (PDF 323.4KB), London: Patient Safety First. Available online.

World Health Organization (2009) Surgical safety checklist (PDF 92KB), Geneva: WHO. Available online.

Journal articles

Full text versions of the following articles are available to RCN members via the e-Library. Select the following link to login and gain direct access the full text version: RCN members.

Armitage G (2009) Human error theory: relevance to nurse management, Journal of Nursing Management, 17 (2), March, pp.193-202.

Callanan C (2010) Attention to detail, Nursing Standard, 24 (34), 28 April, pp.20-21.

Currie L, Lecko C and Gallagher R (2011) Safety: Principle of Nursing Practice C, Nursing Standard, 25 (30), 30 March, pp.35-37.

Norris B (2009) Human factors and safe patient care, Journal of Nursing Management, 17 (2), March, pp.203-211.

Osborne A and Dobie M (2010) Equipped for safety, Nursing Standard, (28) 24, 17 March, p.64.

Tingle J (2010) Making patient safety work: the Health Foundation snapshot, British Journal of Nursing, (20) 19, 11 November, pp.1306-1307.

Websites

1000 Lives+ Wales - national improvement programme, supporting organisations and individuals, to deliver the highest quality and safest healthcare for the people of Wales.

‘Harmfree’ care - To effectively deliver ‘harm free’ care to our patients we need one plan which can be implemented at local level and integrates easily with existing workflow and routines.

HSC Safety Forum Northern Ireland - supporting Health and Social Care organisations to implement evidence-based interventions known to save lives and reduce harm, and work with individuals and organisations who continuously strive to make a difference for patients and clients.

National Patient Safety Agency: Foresight training toolkit - aims to help pre- and post-registration nurses and midwives develop and practise the skills needed to identify situations when a patient safety incident is more likely to occur.

National Patient Safety Agency: Incident Decision Tree - helps managers and senior clinicians decide initial action to take with staff involved in a patient safety incident. It is intended to promote a consistent and fair approach, avoiding unnecessary and costly suspensions and exclusions.

National Patient Safety Agency: Root Cause Analysis toolkit - a tool for guiding NHS staff through the process of conducting an RCA investigation. The RCA Toolkit is supplied free of charge to NHS staff, and its use is subject to conditions of use.

The Health Foundation - publications about improving patient safety for individual health care workers as well as managers from this independent charity working to continuously improve the quality of health care in the UK.

The information centre for health and social care: NHS Safety Thermometer - The NHS Safety Thermometer is a local improvement tool for measuring, monitoring and analysing patient harms and harm free care.

Scottish Patient Safety Programme - co-ordinated by Healthcare Improvement Scotland, the programme directly promotes patient safety within NHS Scotland.

World Health Organization: Patient safety - created to facilitate the development of patient safety policy and practice across all WHO Member States and to act as a major force for patient safety improvement across the world.