Risk Management

Risk Management

Introduction

In nursing, risk management refers to a problem-focused process and makes up one of the ingredients of quality management. Being part of quality management, the main purpose of risk management is the analyzing, identification and evaluation of risks in order to minimize the occurrence of accidents as well as reducing the severity and frequency of these accidents. The daily risk management process involves the intervention measures, detection of the risk and educational measures on the risk. In a given organization, a risk management program brings together the collaboration of all departments. This program must also have an approval from the board of directors as well as full support of the departments in the organization. An effective risk management program must focus on identifying any possible accident risks, financial and injury risks. In identifying the problem areas, the organization’s departments need both formal and informal communication.

A risk management program must also involve the reviewing the monitoring system of the organization. This includes the committee minutes, incident reports, patient questionnaires, as well as the oral complaints (Sullivan & Decker, 2009). It must also incorporate the appraisal of the patient’s risk and safety aspect, new programs and the healthcare procedures of the patients.

The success of risk management in any organization greatly lies under the nursing personnel in that organization. This is because the nursing department involvement in the patients’ healthcare runs throughout. The attitude of the chief nursing administrator has a big influence on the staff’s participation. This comes in since the implementation of the risk management program lies with the members of the staff. Their daily interaction with the patients contributes to the extent of success of the program.

The major categories of high risk areas in health care include; the dissatisfaction of the patient or the family with care, complications that originate from treatment or diagnostic procedures, treatment refusal or declining to sign the treatment consent and medication errors. The nursing fraternity is definitely involved in all the areas but the responsibility on the matters of treatment refusal and consent to treatment lies with the medical staff.

This paper analyses risk management under the patient or family dissatisfaction with care. The perception of the patient concerning any healthcare experience has a big influence on the extent and degree to which medical prescription or advice is accepted and implemented. The behavior of the patient is predicted depending on the opinion of the patient concerning the quality of the services offered during his or her encounter. The satisfaction of the patient acts as a very important outcome used in the evaluation of health care. It is also used to