Effectiveness of Developed Patients Safety Guidelines on Nurses` Performance and patients' outcomes at Intensive Care Units

Background: Patient safety is the cornerstone of high-quality healthcare. Intensive care units (ICUs)
are complex organizations that involve providers from multiple disciplines of patient care. Nursing
interventions have a great impact on reducing the risk of complications for patients in ICUs. Aim:
This study aimed to assess the effect of developed patient safety guidelines on nurses' performance
and patient's outcomes. Subjects and Methods: Research Design: A quasi-experimental design
was used to achieve the aim of the study. Setting: The study was conducted at selected ICUs at
Cairo University Hospitals. Subject: A convenient sample of 60 nursing staff and 120 patients.
Tools of data collection: Three tools were used as follows: 1) Nurses` knowledge about patient
safety guidelines questionnaire, 2) Nurses` Patient safety practices observational checklist, and 3)
Patients ' safety outcomes checklist. The results: Concerning the nurses; the post-mean
knowledge and practice scores of nurses regarding implementation of patients safety guidelines
were higher than pre-implementation and there was a highly significant positive correlation between
total nurses' knowledge and their practice pre- and post-implementation of patients safety guidelines.
While, regarding patients` outcomes, control and study groups of patients were at mild risk with a
highly statistically significant difference between pre- and post-implementation of patient safety
guidelines related total Braden scale. Moreover, two studied patients` groups were at low risk with a
highly statistically significant difference between pre- and post-implementation of patient safety
guidelines related total fall risk assessment. In addition, two studied patients` groups were had mild
pain with a highly statistically significant difference between pre- and post-implementation of
patient safety guidelines related total critical pain assessment scale. Conclusion: There was a highly
significant positive correlation between total nurses' knowledge and their practice at pre- and post-
implementation of patients safety guidelines and there was an improvement in patient safety
outcomes for the study group than the control group after one week with a statistically significant
difference. Recommendations: The hospital administration should encourage the application of
International Patient safety goals (IPSGs) procedures to improve nurses' safety performance.