Institute for Safe Medication Practices
Announces 15th Annual Cheers Award Recipients *
November 6, 2012
James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital and Clinics
The James A. Haley Veterans’ Hospital and Clinics has developed and implemented a patient safety curriculum with an emphasis on medication safety that serves as a superlative example of applied error prevention education. The curriculum was created as part of a larger educational innovation movement supported by the VHA Office of Academic Affiliation, and is being administered to a wide variety of learners, including third and fourth year medical students at the University of South Florida Morsani College of Medicine, internal medicine residents, staff physicians, nurses, and pharmacists. During 4 week rotations, learners attend sessions on patient safety, pharmacy processes, human factors engineering, and identifying potential hazards in a patient’s environment of care. They gain hands-on experience by following a medication from order entry to administration and identifying vulnerabilities for each step and possible solutions. They also participate in a human factors evaluation of a medication device and simulations representing hazards in a patient’s room. The curriculum has been presented at numerous national conferences and shared with national groups within the VHA.
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