As part of Cooper University Health Care’s involvement in the New Jersey High Reliability Organization (HRO) Collaborative, also known as New Jersey STRONG, our goal is to train and educate staff on how to provide the best care to our patients in the safest environment.
There are six safety behaviors that align with New Jersey STRONG’s name and mission:
S – Speak Up for Safety
T – Think Critically
R – Reliably Communicate
O – On Task
N – No Harm
G – Got Your Back
Over the next several months, we will educate staff on how to apply these safety tips – and their associated error prevention tools – to real life, on-the-job situations.
T = Think Critically:
- Critical thinking is important because it:
- Helps us make better decisions and allows us to stop when there is uncertainty about tasks or actions.
- Allows us to question information and determine if it fits in with what we know.
- Helps us detect incorrect information and assumptions that can lead to erroneous decisions or actions.
- When we lack critical thinking, we leave ourselves vulnerable to:
- Making incorrect assumptions.
- Failing to note an unusual condition.
- Using information that is obviously incorrect.
- Misinterpreting correct information.
- We are adopting this Safety Behavior for two reasons:
- To help detect incorrect information and assumptions that can lead to erroneous decisions or actions.
- To help ensure work activities are stopped when faced with uncertainty or unsafe conditions.
There are two error prevention tools to help enforce the Think Critically safety behavior:
- Questioning Attitude
- Validate and Verify
Questioning attitude is the number one critical thinking tool out of 20 that were studied in the nuclear power industry. It involves a two-step technique for processing raw information into fact.
- First, we need to recognize situations or raw information that don’t seem quite right. The raw information can be from any source:
- Direct observation (seeing, hearing, touching, etc.)
- Results of tests (lab values, images, etc.)
- Displays from monitors and devices (monitors, gauges, etc.)
- Verbal or written (orders, patient history, etc.)
- Guidance documents (policies, procedures, etc.)
- Next, we must validate and verify the raw information:
- Validate is an internal check – does this situation or information that has been given to me make sense with what I know to be true or right? (Does this make sense to me?)
- Verify is an external check of the information with an independent and credible source to corroborate our thinking. (Ask an expert!)
If you have questions about this safety tip, please contact the Patient Safety Department at 110-6634 or 856.382.6634.
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Register now and schedule your training session by visiting the Cooper Learning Network – search for “High Reliability Organization (HRO) Staff and Physician Training.”
Upcoming sessions:
Wednesday, March 20, 2019
CBO – Executive Campus
Cherry Hill
8 a.m. to 11 a.m.
or
1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Thursday, March 21, 2019
MD Anderson Cancer Center at Cooper
Room 4100/4101
Two Cooper Plaza
Camden
8 a.m. to 11 a.m.
or
1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Friday, March 22, 2019
CBO – Executive Campus
Cherry Hill
1:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m.
Thursday, March 28, 2019
MD Anderson Cancer Center at Cooper
Room 4100/4101
Two Cooper Plaza
Camden
8 a.m. to 11 a.m.
or
1 p.m. to 4 p.m.