Abstract

*Moses Afolabi, Abdul Oluyole and Tunde Alabi

Patients are always at the receiving end of all medical/nursing care, their safety is a rising concern in health care today. People enter the healthcare system trusting that the system will not harm them. However, increasing evidence suggests that this may not always be true. There is an increase in the prevalence of adverse patients’ outcomes which is associated to several factors. Though the goal of every nursing care is to see that patients come out of the disease process without adverse effect but there are cases where this goal is not achieved due to factors ranging from nurses’ malpractices and negligence, lack of team work, long shifts, to understaffing or unfavorable working environment. Most of the causes have been found to be nursing based or health organization based. Attempt is made in this paper to review adverse patient’s outcomes sensitive to nursing care, the causes as well as the roles of nurses to prevent it. Nurses, as the only healthcare providers who are with patients 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, can play important roles in preventing adverse patient outcomes such as patient falls, pressure ulcers, nosocomial infections, and medication error. By being accountable for care provided, quality outcome can be enhanced.