ABSTRACT
Protecting patients and ensuring safety are key to quality nursing care. This is more than adhering to legal responsibilities (such as the Health and Safety at Work Act 1973), but extends to core nursing activities and especially patient-focused care. Protection and safety are wide reaching, extending from managing emergency situations, prescribing medicines and medicines management, to infection control, and addressing skin care and integrity. The Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC 2018b) assert that nurses have a responsibility for safety and protecting patients and the public, but also themselves. The Code (of professional practice) summarises this with the framework for practice intended to signify what good nursing and midwifery practice looks like. It puts the interests of patients and service users first, is safe and effective, and promotes trust through professionalism. There are several areas of nursing practice that support protection and safety, and ultimately everything nurses do for patients is about safe practice, but protection, however, this short book has four areas: emergency procedures and lifesaving events, medicines management, infection control and skin integrity. It ought be read in conjunction with the other books in the series, which divide up knowledge and skills into chapters intended to build up your knowledge and key information to practise holistic care safely.
