As part of its increasing emphasis on interprofessional education, the University of Tennessee Health Science Center (UTHSC) is bringing together more than 200 students, residents, nurses, physicians and health care workers Oct. 21-23 for a unique, interactive patient safety training series.
The Office of Graduate Medical Education (GME) and the Office of Interprofessional Education and Clinical Simulation (IPECS) are presenting the training to foster and improve situational awareness, creative resource management, teamwork and communication skills in clinical practice settings. Participants have the opportunity to work collaboratively in true-to-life scenarios on high-fidelity patient simulators or manikins in the clinical simulation center at UTHSC.
Experts from the National Center for Patient Safety of the Department of Veterans Affairs, Douglas E. Paull, MD, FACS, FCCP, CHSE, director of patient safety curriculum, and Linda Williams, RN, MSN, patient safety program specialist, will be keynote speakers and lead the clinical simulation training.
Patient safety and quality leaders from St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, Methodist University Hospital, Baptist Memorial Health Care, Memphis VA Medical Center, and Regional One Health will attend, along with UTHSC students and residents.
“We are not only educating our students and residents, but also engaging the community in the principles of patient safety and improvement of communication with the interprofessional team,” said Susan Scott, MSN, RN, WOCN, quality and patient safety educator at UTHSC.
The Joint Commission estimates that 70 percent of sentinel adverse events in health care are caused by communication errors and lapses, she said. Based on new estimates, the number of deaths attributed to adverse events in U.S. hospitals is 220,000 to 440,000 a year. As of July 2013, the Accreditation Council for Graduate Medical Education (ACGME) requires that physicians become competent in patient safety and quality improvement during their residency programs.
“The University of Tennessee is offering this type of event to train the physicians and nurses of the future to promote a safer health care system,” Scott said.