Professor Carina Natale is pictured with Practical Nursing student Erica Seehagel who won the Patient Safety Awareness Week challenge.
In partnership with the Society for Simulation in Healthcare (SSH), the Practical Nursing program at Niagara College made a conscientious commitment to patient safety in clinical Settings for Patient Safety Awareness Week, March 13-19.
Coordinator of the PN program Holldrid Odreman Ph.D., RN; and the full-time lab technologist team of the simulation health lab (Cathy Tirone, Manuel Abascal, and Brenda Milne) facilitated and arranged for students to participate in a Free from Harm Patient Safety Awareness challenge.
Students from each Clinical Class in the PN program (daytime and alternative streams) had an opportunity to participate in the week-long challenge and identify both obvious and subtle Potential Factors for Patient Harm infractions. Erica Seehagel (Term 5 alternative stream PN student) was the winner of the Patient Safety Awareness Week challenge after identifying 45 out of 47 safety infractions.
Consequently, Seehagel’s peers in the term five clinical class also received recognition for their participation in the Patient Safety Awareness Challenge. Under the academic leadership of the part-time Clinical Nursing faculty in the alternative stream, professor Carina Natale was pleased to witness first-hand her students’ keen awareness to the obvious, and sometimes not so obvious, risk factors that put patients at risk of harm within clinical healthcare settings.
“Using the simulation lab to recreate experiences that help students refine their observational skills and recognize potential infractions that compromise patient safety, was the primary objective of this week-long challenge,” said Odreman.
According to lab technologist Cathy Tirone, the event was well attended and students in each of the clinical courses of the program were very engaged.
The clinical faculty, lab team, and support staff in the PN program congratulate all students that participated and encourage all Practical Nursing students to continue to be serious about patient safety.
