The Joint Commission's 2010 National Patient Safety Goals (NPSG) will take effect January 1, which begs the question: What is your plan for training residents on the NPSGs?
All too often, hospital and graduate medical education (GME) administrators overlook teaching residents about NPSGs. Instead, they educate attending physicians, assuming the message will trickle down to the residents. Unfortunately, that doesn't always happen.
Everyone in the hospital should view residents as a critical part of the hospital's care delivery team. It's just as important to teach residents about the NPSGs as it is to educate nurses, attending physicians, and other healthcare providers, says Constance K. Haan, MD, MS, senior associate dean of educational affairs and designated institutional official at University of Florida College of Medicine—Jacksonville.
Not only is the training important for maintaining patient safety, but it is also critical for compliance with Joint Commission standards, says Bud Pate, REHS, vice president of The Greeley Company, a division of HCPro, Inc., in Marblehead, MA.
"The NPSGs apply to all staff. There is no difference in expectation for residents than anyone else when it comes to complying with the goals," Pate says.
The following are suggestions on how to train residents on the NPSG:
Campus-wide grand rounds. At Haan's institution, residents must attend a campus-wide grand rounds presentation that covers the NPSGs.
"We made this a mandatory training because we wanted to send the message that patient safety is important," Haan says.
Make the information stick by showing residents how NPSGs affect their daily patient care responsibilities. Haan distributes and posts online a handout that describes the goals and how residents apply them on a local level.
For example, the handout describes what The Joint Commission (formerly JCAHO) expects hospitals to do to comply with NPSG.02.05.01, regarding handoffs. It then lists the facility's procedure for handoffs and outlines what happens if residents violate one of the policies or procedures.
Joint Commission educational resources. The Joint Commission frequently offers satellite video training on the NPSGs. Many institutions treat these as town hall sessions and invite everyone—residents, attending physicians, and other healthcare staff members—to listen in.
Residents' schedules make it difficult for them to participate in every session. The GME office should work with the office responsible for Joint Commission accreditation to present training during specific department meetings or grand rounds, which residents will most likely attend.
Quality improvement projects. Encourage residents to develop quality improvement initiatives that will help the hospital meet the NPSGs.
"Being on the frontline of care delivery, they're often the ones that see the error potential," Haan says. "They often have the best ideas for how to solve problems."
To develop successful quality improvement projects, residents must have an understanding of how the healthcare system works. Several NPSGs call on organizations to consider evidence-based practices—a component of practice-based learning and improvement—when developing processes and determining their effectiveness.
Hospital committees. Invite residents to sit on hospital committees. This is a great way to expose them to patient safety initiatives. These committees routinely develop system-wide policies dictated by the NPSGs.
Resident members learn and offer input as the committee reviews hospital systems and creates processes to ensure they're in compliance.
Julie McCoy is editor for the Residency Department at HCPro, Inc. Find more graduate medical education news at www.residencymanager.com.