Identity monitoring

Trainee : Good morning. I’m Anne, the trainee nurse.

Nurse : Glad to meet you Anne. I’m Maud, the resident nurse.

Trainee : Pleasure to meet you too. It’s my first training in pediatrics and I was told that identity monitoring is essential to all care and treatment that follow.

Nurse : That’s right. It’s the first step for admitting a patient and it’s vital for care procedures or at least for error reduction.

Trainee : So what’s the protocol to admitting a child for the first time ?

Nurse : Well, first of all, when the parents arrive at the admission, we ask for the name of the child with the correct spelling, his or her date of birth, then we note down the date of entrance into the hospital and the hospital stay number. And we check out all contact details if possible by asking them to give out an ID card.

Trainee : We have to create an identification file from official documents, don’t we ?

Nurse : Exactly. And we have to fill in the medical file according to the hospital procedures, that is on a computerized file.

Trainee : Is there anything we should do afterwards ?

Nurse : Of course. But at this stage, we have to read back all information to the parents before final validation. If all is ok, we validate the file.

Trainee : And therefore we admit the child into the hospital !

Nurse : Yes, that is after having handed out the identification file to the parents.

Trainee : So the child is admitted. What’s the next step ?

Nurse : The admission staff will verify the contact information and deliver an identification bracelet, in the admission office, for the child to wear during his hospital stay.

Trainee : But what is the bracelet for, if the child has already been identified at the admission ?

Nurse : To guarantee the identity and the information concerning the child, and therefore the accuracy of care. But also to minimize the risk factors, like the medication errors, or during information transfer from one nurse to another.

Trainee : What do you mean by accuracy of care ?

Nurse : It’s when we have to get a blood sample of the patient, for an IV, an X-ray, chemotherapy or any simple nursing care. But also if the patient has to be transferred to the operating room, or before anesthesia is given.

Trainee : So, for each medical act, we have to check out the identity of the patient, and the bracelet is a sure and fast way to do so.

Nurse : That’s right. And therefore, we avoid errors that might be detrimental to the patient’s health and that might give rise to prosecution, I mean legal liability. Is that OK ?

Trainee : Got it. I’ll be careful. Thanks for all these explanations !