Interventions related to patient safety.

Patient safety is a growing priority in today's increasingly complex, highly technologic, and business-oriented health care system. This increasing emphasis is being fueled by issues such as cost containment, risk management, quality assurance, health care consumer activism, and legal accountability for practice. In such an environment, it is important that nursing be able to quantify and communicate what it does to promote and maintain patient safety. A standardized language of patient safety interventions provides nursing with the tool to do this. It provides a common language to use when dealing with patient safety issues in the practice, education, research, and administrative arenas. It also allows nurses to package and market the "product" of nursing care to health care consumers, other health care professionals, hospital administrators, and politicians, all of whom share an interest in ensuring that patient safety is maintained and promoted in the most comprehensive yet cost-efficient manner possible.