Peer Review

I was honored to be part of a peer review mentoring session.

S.H. was unable to attend the Peer Review Session, so her friend J.M. sat in for her.
When J.M. came to debrief with S.H. about the meeting, they let me stay. (carefully keeping the names and identities of all parties confidential!)

The bottom line to the discussion was that taking responsibility for your actions is the key!
The Peer Review Board is make of the person's Peers. Human Peers. Humans make mistakes and the recognize that fact.

The Peer Review Board is looking for the cause of why the problem occurred, not just who to blame! If the cause is the nurse's lack of education, opportunities for remediation will be given so the nurse will feel confident that the problem will not occur again. If the Nurse denies all responsibility and blames others for their issues, the board worries that other problems may be covered up, not reported, education will not be attained, and further harm might be done. These nurses that refuse responsibility, have no remorse, and try to push blame onto others have a high chance of being reported to the BNE for closer inspection.

The Peer Review Board is also looking for system causality. If many different departments are doing the same things, some things not as safe as others, the system needs to be changed. Perhaps the nurse thought they were doing what was best, but there are safer ways to provide the care to the patient. The safest care possible needs to be provided to all patients, system wide. The nurse being reviewed will have the opportunity to change their care first, since they have helped to recognize the problem.

S.H. and J.M. have been leading the peer review boards for many years. They had many examples and shared many experiences.

Bottom line...
Take Responsibility for your actions!

(16-6-10)