A new breed of safety fair focuses on data-based trends

For years, employee safety fairs served as inexpensive ways to host informal refreshers about hospital policies and procedures.
Some facilities, however, now tie their safety fair content opportunities for improvement, education about new equipment and training, and honed emergency preparedness.
Safety fairs are best when they reflect data and trends the hospital has collected, says Ann Colvin, RN, advanced nursing coordinator for the University of Alabama Hospital in Birmingham, whose safety fair in the hospital atrium in April attracted 44 vendors and 1,100 staff participants.
A safety fair doesn’t fill the need for mandated training. However, when you tie the fair’s content to incident data you’ve collected, it shows Joint Commission surveyors that you’re acting upon trouble spots you’ve identified.