Full Description
Limiting Harm in Health Care highlights the potential for unnecessary harm in health care practice. This harm is mostly unintentional, but it can result from many different aspects of medical treatment in a wide range of practice areas. Adverse events, events or omissions during clinical care resulting in physical or psychological injury, are increasingly being recognised as significant problems in health care. Following clarification of the nature and extent of medical harm in health care, separate chapters explore the potential for medical harm in diverse areas of practice. Topics include problems in the use of medication, the treatment of acute heart disease, the role of hospital routine and the potentially negative role of medically dominated treatment in mental illness and palliative care. The book includes recommendations for reducing unnecessary harm within the expanding boundaries of nursing practice. The reader is challenged to assess the potential risks inherent in the health care system, to reconsider established methods of treatment, and to re-examine professional working relationships.
Contents
Maps, medicine, nurses and health care; Defining medicine, nursing and the nature of iatrogenesis; Health professions, power, knowledge and expertise, Shifting boundaries in current nursing practice; The hidden harm of drug therapy; Drugging family therapy- shifts in the care of hyperactive children; Talking harm- the medicalization of mental health practice; Disabling professions- the lay perspective; Lessons on managing risk- the medical experience; Nurse diagnosed myocardial infarction- hidden nurse work and iatrogenic risk; Talking death , talking harm; NHS Direct- the impact of information technology and shifting nurse roles; Repercussions and possible future trends- limiting iatrogenic harm.
