Chapters authored
Social Work Leadership for Patient Safety
Social workers are rarely considered as key personnel in the field of patient safety. The clinical nature of many, if not most, errors means that it is much more likely that doctors, nurses and pharmacists are involved both in the errors themselves and in attempts to improve the quality and safety of care. Yet, despite best efforts around the world for the last two decades the overall rate of errors has not decreased. In this chapter I argue that there is great potential for social work leadership to improve the quality and safety of care for patients and clients, and in particular for vulnerable individuals and groups. One way of understanding this potential is through the lens of a social epidemiology of patient safety, which can then be linked to the competencies required by social workers in leading this new approach to patient/client safety and quality improvement. Drawing on evidence both from research and from patient safety inquiries around the world, I look at how the social context and status of patients contributes to errors, particularly of vulnerable individuals and groups, and the unique leadership role that social workers can take in preventing and responding to errors and adverse events.
Part of the book: Social Work
Patient Safety and People Who Are Incarcerated
We explore a number of key relationships between patient safety and the health status of imprisoned people. This is a conceptual study drawing connections between a number of literatures including the field of patient safety, the work done on health and illness amongst imprisoned people, their social characteristics, and the carceral environment itself. We show that this is an underexplored and under-theorised field of inquiry. It also sets the scene for further investigation of not only individual and systemic factors in the health and illness experienced by such people but the role of the carceral environment. It seems clear that the risk of ill-health rises for many people who are incarcerated. Errors of both omission and commission are common in carceral environments. Risks rise for patients in such environments due to delays in diagnosis, referral and treatment. Understanding the complex and inter-related factors that increase ill-health in individuals, groups and communities provides a starting point for understanding why, when and how imprisoned people need to access and utilise healthcare, how will they are when they do so, and how. It also opens up the question of how these factors might affect their susceptibility to medical errors and adverse events.
Part of the book: Contemporary Topics in Patient Safety