Bringing inexperienced clinicians up to speed on real-world patient care is the No. 1 safety issue troubling healthcare providers in 2024, according to ECRI’s latest annual report on the topic.

Difficulties orienting new clinicians to their day-to-day duties rose to the top largely due largely to two vexing challenges: lingering effects from pandemic-related training disruptions and ongoing shortages in the healthcare workforce.

Citing a recent survey showing 30% of nurses with less than two years’ experience feel ill-prepared to practice on their own, the ECRI authors comment:

Without sufficient preparation, support and training throughout the transition into practice, new clinicians can experience loss of confidence, burnout and reduced mindfulness around culture of safety. The coalescence of these factors may lead to a failure to recognize and rescue patients from preventable harm, and/or contribute directly to patient harm events.

This year the nonprofit patient-safety organization worked with its Institute for Safe Medication Practices (ISMP) affiliate to identify and rank 10 patient safety concerns.

Presenting the list as an aid for healthcare leaders committed to reducing preventable patient harms, ECRI says the two orgs analyzed evidence-based research and data as well as insights from various subject matter experts.

The report’s target audience is leaders not only of hospital systems and physician practices but also of ambulatory care centers, retirement facilities and homecare operations.  

Here’s the full list for 2024:
 

1. Challenges transitioning newly trained clinicians from education into practice
    
2. Workarounds with barcode medication administration systems
    
3. Barriers to access maternal and perinatal care
    
4. Unintended consequences of technology adoption
    
5. Decline in physical and emotional well-being of healthcare workers
    
6. Complexity of preventing diagnostic error
    
7. Providing equitable care for people with physical and intellectual disabilities
    
8. Delay in care resulting from drug, supply and equipment shortages
    
9. Misuse of parenteral syringes to administer oral liquid medications
    
10.  Ongoing challenges with preventing patient falls

The report describes the trouble spots in some detail, offering action recommendations for each.

ECRI says the report can serve as a guide “for a systems approach to adopting proactive strategies and solutions to mitigate risks, improve healthcare outcomes and, ultimately, enhance the well-being of patients and the healthcare workforce.”

Download the full report here.