CRITICAL INCIDENT

Using critical incident for the improvement in overall health-care system

Using critical incident for the improvement in overall health-care system

Introduction

In business set ups especially in the field of medical, numerous 'critical' incidents take place which causes Professionals or Practitioners to pause and look, thoughtfully and attentively, at the resulting events or situations that have occurred and assign them some meaning. This experience on the part of part of professionals and practitioners can be a negative as well as a positive. By identifying the underlying behaviors which have caused the incident and proved to be either helpful or unhelpful in a situation, Professionals can use a critical incident as a way of reflecting (Hannigan, 2001).

In the field of nursing, normally critical incidents occurs in the form of medication errors like which results in a death or great sufferings of a patient. These situations in nursing can be labeled as 'critical incidents' as they discourage the nurses from making the same mistake by encouraging them to reflect on what actually happened, what was their supposed role in it, what they actually did which causes them to challenge and change those practices which are identified as cause of the incident and develops a resolution in them to do better next time. Identification of the sources and the nature of critical incidents present an opportunity to adopt and integrate improved practices and systems into the overall functioning of an organization which results in prevention of the same incident from happening again in the future (Perry, 1997).

Hagland (2000) says that majority of people at some point in their professional lives gives a due consideration to improve the current practices, overcome the hurdles to avoid the undesirable event from happening again. Critical incidents expose the loophole in a system or practices which are considered 'perfect' otherwise. In the field of nursing, using critical incidents as guidance to determine the overall direction of an organization can save many people lives or save them from great suffering which errors could cause to them. Reflection on critical incidents helps nurses in provision of more effective health care to the patients.

But using critical incidents to improve the practices and optimize the systems in every field including health care requires reflectors in a position with required authority to orchestrate changes. If a reflector perceives her/him to be in a position without authority to make the necessary changes or she/he is suffering from professional apathy, it is highly unlikely that practice and learning will be advanced. The successful reflection takes place with the authority complemented with problem solving attitude required amount of resources (Baigelman et al., pp. 253).

Discussion

A suitable critical incident

The patient concerned was a fifty years old male pedestrian struck by a car. Although quite fortunately, he didn't suffer any injuries on his chest, spine and more importantly head, he had to be admitted in ICU as he was suffering from hypovolaemic shock which caused him abdominal bleeding at the time he was brought to the ...