Inspiration Lesson Plan

Carol Jean Luppi, RN

Grade Level / Audience:

  1. Nurses-In-Charge. These nurses are experienced men and women who have actively sought leadership positions on the inpatient nursing care units. They are familiar with the safety systems in place in the hospital and are responsible for supervising staff nurses.
  2. Newly hired nurses at the hospital RN orientation program. These nurses may be newly licensed nurses or experienced nurses. The majority of these nurses have not worked at the hospital prior to this program. They have received training regarding safety systems in the hospital.

Overview of Lesson:

There is an alarming level of medical errors occurring in all health care delivery systems in our country. In an attempt to decrease these errors, safety systems are being introduced at a variety of levels throughout most hospitals. These systems are only effective when health care providers utilize their features thoughtfully and carefully. For whatever reasons, some safety systems are being bypassed. This presentation is designed to increase compliance with safety systems by providing data regarding clinical practice errors, personalizing clinical practice errors, and visually illustrating the relationship between clinical practice errors and safety systems.

This lesson will begin with a PowerPoint presentation of data surrounding clinical practice errors and safety systems. Examples in the presentation include data from a variety of sources including fatal clinical practice errors and clinical practice errors that have resulted in malpractice claims. Nurses find these examples particularly engaging and exciting. At the conclusion of the PowerPoint presentation, each group will participate in a brainstorming session and creation of an Inspiration® map to illustrate the relationship between the use of safety systems and the prevention of clinical practice errors. The audience will be further engaged by the provision of examples of clinical practice errors encountered personally by their peers.

At this point, the lesson plan is altered depending upon the audience. When the audience consists of Nurses-In-Charge, the group will be divided for a round table discussion. The RN orientation group will use Inspiration® software to create a map that illustrates the protection that safety systems provide during an average nursing shift.

Understanding Goals:

At the conclusion of this presentation: The participants will be able to verbalize the relationship between the use of safety systems and clinical practice errors.

Materials needed:

1. NIC Forum

  • Computer and LCD Projector
  • Attached PowerPoint presentation
  • Inspiration® Software and attached templates and graphic illustrations
  • Microphones (if large group)

2. RN Orientation Program

  • Computer and LCD Projector
  • Attached PowerPoint presentation
  • Inspiration® Software and attached and attached templates and graphic illustrations
  • Personal computer for each participant (presumes knowledge of Inspiration® Software program)

Describe the activity:

  1. Instructor Preparation:
  2. Review the Institute of Medicine’s report at the following Web site.
  3. Read The Challenger Launch Decision: Risky Technology, Culture, and Deviance at NASA.” by Diane Vaughan. University of Chicago Press. 1996.
  4. Attend “Normalization of Deviance” program at Nursing Professional Development Department.
  5. Duration:
  6. PowerPoint Presentation: 30 minutes
  7. Inspiration® Brainstorming Session: 15 minutes
  8. NIC Forum Roundtable Discussions: 15 minutes
  9. NIC Roundtable Discussion Presentation: 30 minutes
  10. Newly Hired Nurses Inspiration® Assignment: 15 minutes
  11. Newly Hired Nurses Discussion: 10 minutes
  12. Room Set Up
  13. NIC Forum: Round tables of 8 – 10 participants
  14. RN Orientation: Lecture style with tables and computer for each participant.
  15. Present (both groups) the attached PowerPoint lecture of quality data and practice errors. Use this presentation to provide new knowledge or review existing knowledge of clinical practice errors and safety systems.
  16. At the beginning of the lecture, ask each nurse in the audience to think about clinical practice errors from their own practice and view the presentation in that framework.
  17. At slide 38, engage (both groups) in a brainstorming session to create an Inspiration® map that illustrates the zone of safety systems designed to protect patients.
  18. Use attached Inspiration® map Safety System Template to enter the brainstorming examples of clinical practice errors (in red circles) from the PowerPoint presentation. The gentleman in the center is their patient. He happens to be my father. Ask the audience to envision a member of their family in the center.
  19. Add examples of clinical practice errors (in red circles) from their own experiences. Organize the examples of clinical practice errors in a large circle around the patient.
  20. Provide the following patient history:
  • 81-year-old veteran of the Battle of the Bulge.
  • Type II Diabetes controlled on oral medications
  • Emphysema from a 70 year pack history of smoking
  • Partially deaf and wears hearing aids
  • Requires trifocal glasses and a magnifying glass to read
  • Debilitating osteoarthritis in chronic pain
  • Coronary Artery Bypass 1982
  • Hypertension
  • Hyperlipidemia
  • Takes 20 different medications
  • Brainstorm the safety systems that are in place at this hospital to protect this patient against these errors. Enter these examples in green circles. Organize these examples between the red error circles and their patient. See attached map Safety Systems Red.
  • Then link the clinical practice error to the safety system and do not link the safety system to the picture of the patient.
  • Highlight the green zone of safety between the patient and the red clinical practice errors.
  • Show the group the alternative illustration of the zone of safety systems attached as Safety Systems Graphics.
  • Compare and contrast number of safety systems between the patient and the clinical practice errors emphasizing the inverse relationship between the number of safety systems and the risk to the patient. Remove random safety systems and connect the arrow from the clinical practice error to the patient to illustrate what happens when a practitioner bypasses a safety system.
  1. NIC Forum: Separate the audience into round table discussion groups so that half the audience discusses the first question from the PowerPoint presentation and the other half discusses the second question. Ask each table to designate a spokesperson from their table. After 15 minutes, ask each spokesperson to summarize their roundtable discussion for the entire group.
  • First Group: What are the barriers to the use of safety systems?
  • Second Group: How do we help nurses accept that bypassing safety systems is dangerous?
  1. RN Orientation: Using Inspiration® Software, ask each orientee to create an illustration of the safety systems in place at our hospital that help prevent him or her from making clinical practice errors during his or her shift. Each nursing action from the patient assignment below will be entered in a red circle. Safety systems will be entered in a green circle. Instruct nurses to connect the nursing action, safety systems and patient.
  • Administer Morning Medications To Mrs. Jones.
  • Draw Morning Lab Work For Mrs. Jones.
  • Escort Mrs. Jones To Radiology Department.
  • Receive Telephone Report Of Alert Lab Values.
  • Perform 12-lead ECG On Mrs. Jones.
  • Call Physician For Emergency Order Of Dilaudid For Mrs. Jones and

Enter Telephone Order For Dilaudid Into Computer.

  • Administer Dilaudid To Mrs. Jones.
  1. When students have completed the assignment, have students self correct their illustration by showing students the graphic representation attached. Address any questions.

Safety Systems Template

Safety Systems Red

Safety Systems Graphics

Your Patient

Your Patient Graphics