Awarded second place in the 2021 AJN Book of the Year Awards in
Professional Issues!
Nurses represent the majority of healthcare workers and are on the front
lines of delivery and provision of safe and effective care. As a result,
nurses are ideally situated to drive the mission to achieve high
reliability in healthcare. We expect the primary audience of this text
to be frontline nursing staff, nurses in administration, quality and
patient safety professionals, advanced practice nurses, and nurse
educators. The healthcare professional who purchases this book will do
so with the desire to learn more about the application of HRO principles
to patient safety and quality problems. This book is unique in that it
uses HRO principles as an organizing framework for practical
application. The intent of the editors is to provide a quality and
patient safety book that is useful to professionals doing the work of
healthcare.
Healthcare professionals are constantly seeking practical tools and
descriptions of practices that will improve and enhance patient safety
and quality outcomes. High reliability is a current goal for hospitals,
and the principles are sound. However, there is little in the literature
that discusses how to apply the principles at the front lines of care to
improve outcomes. This text addresses this gap by placing the need for
high reliability concepts into our current climate in healthcare through
illustrative discussion (theory and research) of each of the five
concepts of HRO, along with a description of a current best practice
and/or tool that applies to the model. The goal of this book is to
stimulate organizations to embrace high reliability concepts while
striving to improve the quality and safety of care delivered to patients
and families. We all benefit from a safer healthcare environment.
The book is divided into eight parts:
- Part 1: This part provides background for the current safety and
quality climate.
- Parts 2-6: These parts offer HRO concepts as a framework for the new
model with examples.
- The first of these HRO concepts is that HROs have a preoccupation
with failure.
- The second of these HRO concepts is that HROs restrain the impulse
to view events through a single lens and are reluctant to simplify.
- The third HRO concept is that HROs demonstrate sensitivity to
operations by making strong responses to weak signs.
- The fourth HRO concept is that HROs shift decision making away from
formal authority and apply deference to expertise.
- The final HRO concept is that HROs have a commitment to resilience.
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Part 7: This part puts it all together and provides the reader with
examples of how HRO concepts are assimilated into practice across the
care continuum.
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Part 8: This part provides the reader with real-world examples of HRO
principles employed in a variety of patient care areas.
Comprehensive Instructor's Guide and Student Workbook are available for
this book.
