An Audit of Safety Measures of Pediatric Wards

Providing the health care service accompanies with a degree of risk. Since attaining comprehensive safety requires a preliminary evaluation of the present situation, this study aimed to determinr the safety status of children admitted to the hospitals affiliated to Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences, Iran.

This cross-sectional and descriptive study was performed in the medical and surgical wards of the Mofid children Hospital in Tehran during 2013-2014. A researcher made observation-based checklist about children&rsquo safety was used to collect the data about equipments&rsquo safety, physical environment and nursing cares. Based on the achieved scores, hospital&rsquos safety conditions were categorized into three groups of favorable, relatively favorable, and unfavorable.

Data analysis showed the adherence of children settings to safety measures. Regarding equipment&rsquos safety, 77.6% was favorable, 45.6% of physical environment scored as relatively favorable, and 66.5% of nursing cares graded as favorable.

This study showed that the safety state of pediatric wards of the Mofid hospital affiliated to Shahid Beheshti University of Medical Sciences was desirable in equipments and the safety status of the physical environment nevertheless nursing care measure was moderate which can lead to problems and hazards for patients. Finally, reinforcing the safety measures in the three criteria is necessary to decreas the risks and subsequently improvement of safety in hospital.