Key safety reminders for Registered Nurses caring for the pediatric population include:
Use two patient identifiers before medications, specimens, procedures, blood products, and transfers. Never use room number as an identifier.
Obtain an accurate current weight in kilograms and use it for weight-based dosing, fluids, nutrition, and equipment sizing. Recheck significant changes.
Perform medication safeguards: Verify dose calculations, concentration, route, pump programming, allergies, compatibility, and independent double-checks for high-alert medications.
Keep age-appropriate emergency readiness: Confirm appropriate-size airway/resuscitation equipment, emergency medication references, and escalation pathways are available.
Prevent clinical deterioration: Trend vital signs, behavior/mental status, work of breathing, perfusion, pain, intake/output, and caregiver concerns. Escalate changes early rather than waiting for a single threshold.
Maintain safe sleep practices: Use the approved sleep environment; follow orders and policy for positioning, monitoring, and developmental needs.
Prevent falls and injury: Apply age/development-specific precautions, secure cribs/stretchers, supervise ambulation, and educate caregivers before transfers or mobility.
Protect lines, tubes, and drains: Trace lines from patient to source, verify labels and connections, assess securement and necessity, and follow device-bundle practices.
Prevent infection: Perform hand hygiene, use indicated isolation/PPE, follow central-line/urinary-catheter bundles, and clean shared equipment between patients.
Support safe feeding: Confirm the correct patient, formula/breast milk, route, rate, and aspiration precautions. Verify enteral tube placement per policy before use.
Include family/caregivers as safety partners: Use interpreter services when needed; teach them how to call for help and invite them to speak up about baseline changes or concerns.
Deliver complete handoffs: Include diagnosis, code status, allergies, baseline versus current status, medications/infusions, devices, pending tasks, safety risks, and contingency/escalation plan.
Document and report promptly: Report near misses, unsafe conditions, and events through the approved reporting process so hazards can be addressed.
