Safe Harbor Nursing Peer Review - Implications for Nursing Practice in Texas

Course overview

Discussion of Safe Harbor Nursing Peer Review including situations in which a nurse may consider invoking Safe Harbor, protections afforded to a nurse when he or she invokes Safe Harbor, and the process for how to invoke Safe Harbor. Patient safety is of upmost importance when it comes to patient care, but there may be times when opinions differ regarding what constitutes safe. In the state of Texas, when a nurse receives an assignment that the nurse believes may violate his or her duty to provide safe patient care, the nurse may invoke Safe Harbor. Safe Harbor protects the nurse from employer retaliation and Board of Nursing (BON) disciplinary action pending the committees decision, but allows the nurse to accept the patient assignment. Some organizations discourage Safe Harbor requests, and some nurses lack the knowledge regarding how to correctly begin the process of invoking Safe Harbor. It is ultimately the nurses responsibility to ensure that he or she is able to provide safe patient care within their scope of practice, and nurses must be aware of the protections afforded to them should an unsafe patient situation arise. This program discusses the Safe Harbor Nursing Review process, including when a nurse should consider invoking Safe Harbor, the process for invoking Safe Harbor, and protections afforded to the nurse.