Nursing faculty appoints Patient Safety Champions

Patient safety is critical for everyone working in health care, and now the Faculty of Nursing has a group of student volunteers who will be championing the cause.

The faculty recently announced the appointment of its first Patient Safety Champions.

“The program is focused on advancing the understanding of the science of patient safety and quality improvement in our nursing students,” said Susan Dennison, a professor in the faculty, who along with colleague Michelle Freeman announced the appointments last week.

Champions are required to attend an orientation session and complete on-line modules from the Institute for Healthcare Improvement’s Open School on various aspects of patient safety including fundamentals on error prevention, team work and communication, human factors, and how to support the creation of a culture of safety.

Planning IHI Open School events, a patient safety conference, and acting as a contact for student in their levels regarding specific patient safety concerns will be among the duties for the volunteers. They’ll also assist with identifying learning needs and gaps of students in their level that will be used to guide changes in the curriculum.

“Champions are used effectively in all healthcare environments to improve quality and patient safety and we believe that we’ll have the same success using this model in our nursing program,” said Dr. Freeman.

Successful applicants to the program include first-year student Larissa Scimmi, second year students Ryley Reis and Jessica Gabrieau, third year student Emily Angus, and fourth-year students Katrina Baldwin, James Daabous, Sheena Maloney, Erika Lanoue, Aaron Varghese, and Tiffany Vincent.

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