SCHOLARLY PAPER

Scholarly Paper

Scholarly Paper

1. Introduction

Canada has a quality health care system that delivers safe and effective care to Canadians every day. Providing safe, quality health care to Canadians is a priority for all governments. Nevertheless, even with the most excellent systems in place, things sometimes go wrong. There is a need to alter the culture of silence and promote a culture of sharing and learning such that safety can be improved.

There is important action in Canada connected to patient safety. Because of this, governments distinguish the need to work collaboratively with further sectors and each other, to share finest practices, and distinguish the role of research, knowledge transfer and assessment to guarantee patient safety. (Zilm 2008)

2. Literature Review

In Canada, it is estimated that 250,000 people - one out of nine patients, who are admitted to hospital every year pick up infections while being treated for something else. Each year, more than 8,000 of them die from those illnesss. Based on global research authorized by the World Health Organization (WHO), enhancements in hand cleanliness could decrease infections acquired in healthcare settings by up to 50 per cent. And even though proper hand-washing may seem like a simple concept, the WHO has determined that compliance among healthcare providers is low around the world. In Canada, around 40 per cent of healthcare contributors meet the terms with the WHO hand hygiene principles on when and how to clean their hands. (Reutter 2006)

Some of the barriers to compliance are systemic, such as limited availability of hand-washing facilities and personnel shortages that lead to time pressures on the job. But the reality is that hand washing is such a basic measure, we often take it for granted. Healthcare workers - the backbone of Canada's high-quality healthcare system - have a critical role in stopping the spread of infection.

The Canadian Patient Safety Institute (CPSI) was recognized in 2003 as an self-governing, not-for-profit corporation, operating collaboratively with health professionals and organizations, authoritarian bodies and governments to build and go forward with a safer healthcare system for Canadians. CPSI performs a coordinating and leadership role across health sectors and systems, promotes leading practices and raises awareness about patient safety by working in collaboration with partners, patients, their families and the general public.

Canada's Hand Hygiene Campaign has been residential based on arguments with healthcare providers, unit managers, Infection Prevention and Control Professionals and senior healthcare person in charge such as hospital CEOs and directors of healthcare facilities across Canada. A key element of the Campaign is a series of “toolkits” that focus on awareness-raising, education, training, communication and promotion. (Reutter 2006)



Registered Nurses

After strong growth in the 1980s, the number of RNs employed in nursing declined in the mid-1990s and has remained stable since that time. Between 2004 and 2005, the number of registrations increased in all of Canada's provinces. (Mansell 2005)

The number of RNs employed in registered nursing increased by 8.7% between 2001 and 2005, from 231,512 to 251,673. The number of RNs employed in nursing in ...