CONTRIBUTIONS OF NURSING PROFESSIONALS TO PATIENT SAFETY

Abstract

This study aims to describe the contributions of nursing professionals to patient safety. This was structured based on an integrative literature review. The data collection was carried out between May 5th and June 10th, 2024 in the LILACS and SCIELO databases. To search for studies, the following descriptors were used: “patient safety” AND “nursing”, registered in the Health Sciences Descriptors. The inclusion criteria were the full original studies available in indexed databases, written in Portuguese, and which were published in the last five years, between 2019 and 2024. Initially, 711 studies were found in LILACS and 596 in SCIELO. After analysis, reading of the studies and application of the inclusion and exclusion criteria, a quantity of 8 articles were selected to compose the integrative review, as these studies covered the proposed theme, answered the research question and achieved the objective proposed by this study. After selecting the studies, they were distributed in a data table containing the following information: title, author, year, objective, location, and study approach. The literature showed that many nursing professionals have knowledge and implement protocols aimed at user safety, thus correctly identifying the patient, adopting measures associated with the prevention of infections, as well as carrying out care aimed at preventing pressure injuries. However, studies have shown that currently there are still weaknesses that compromise patient safety, being related to failures in correct patient identification, lack of knowledge of the importance of reporting adverse events, as well as deficits associated with the safe surgery checklist.