Study discusses ways to reduce missed nursing care

Improving the safety climate on labor and delivery units through better teamwork and communication could decrease missed nursing care and improve nursing care quality, according to study authors. Published in the April issue of the Journal of Patient Safety, the authors conducted a survey of 3,429 labor and delivery nurses from 253 hospitals nationwide from February 2018 to July 2019. They found an average of 11 of 25 aspects of essential nursing care were occasionally, frequently or always missed. The authors postulate adequate nurse staffing, ensuring non-punitive responses to errors and promoting open communication could improve the safety climate and reduce the amount of missed nursing care. (AHRQ Journal of Patient Safety article, 4/12/23)