Safety huddle in a community nursing setting

Abstract

A safety huddle is a meeting held among district nurses, allied health professionals, specialist nurses, administrative staff, community matrons and healthcare assistants, also known as the wider multidisciplinary team. This article aims to identify and discuss the importance of safety huddles within a community nursing team. The author, a Specialist Community Practitioner District Nurse (SCPDN), explores why safety huddles were introduced and the implications of staff and patient safety if a safety huddle is not performed. The article also discusses the role of the SCPDN, how patient harm is sustained when communication failures occur within a team, new technologies implemented into practice and the implementation of safety huddles electronically.