Experience with Quality and Safety
Question 1 : Post a brief description of any previous experience with quality and safety. Then, explain how your role as the doctoral-prepared nurse represents a function of quality and safety for nursing practice and healthcare delivery. Be specific and provide examples.
Reading Material
Nash, D. B., Joshi, M. S., Ransom, E. R., & Ransom, S. B. (Eds.). (2019). The healthcare quality book: Vision, strategy, and tools (4th ed.). Health Administration Press.
• Chapter 1, “Overview of Healthcare Quality†(pp. 5–47)
• Chapter 2, “History and the Quality Landscape†(pp. 49–74)
Institute of Medicine (U.S.) Committee on Quality of Health Care in America. (2001). Crossing the quality chasm: A new health system for the 21st century. National Academies Press.
• Read the Executive Summary only.
Kohn, L. T., Corrigan, J. M., & Donaldson, M. S. (Eds). (2000). To err is human: Building a safer health system. National Academies Press.
• Read the Executive Summary only.
Barkell, N. P., & Snyder, S. S. (2021). Just culture in healthcare: An integrative review. Nursing Forum, 56(1), 103–111. https://doi.org/10.1111/nuf.12525
Institute for Healthcare Improvement. (2021). https://www.ihi.org
PSNet. (2019). Culture of safety. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. https://psnet.ahrq.gov/primer/culture-safety
Ricciardi, R. (2018). The next frontier for nurses. Journal of Nursing Care Quality, 33(1), 1–4. https://doi.org/10.1097/NCQ.0000000000000304
Sample Paper
Quality and safety
Quality and safety are essential elements in the development of health systems. Every organization has different and unique safety cultures that encompass their organization plan activities. Safety culture can impact the healthcare organization if not practiced effectively. For instance, issues such as medical errors are associated with low practices in safety culture. Therefore, health organizations must ensure teamwork training, effective communication tools, a conducive environment, and unit-based teams to enhance safety in health professionals, stakeholders, and patients (PSNet, 2019). Quality entails redesigning care systems and not necessarily trying to stress- out on the current systems. The health systems must be changed, such as information technology used to enhance effective clinical administration processes (Institute of Medicine, 2017).
Previous Experience with Quality and Safety
During my practice, I had joined one of the facilities that focus on long-term acute care patients. This kind of healthcare setting requires advanced practice registered nurses to improve the quality and patient outcomes. The nurses were always working in teams, especially during training, and were determined to solve the problems associated directly with the patients. There were frequent board meetings for all staff and teambuilding sessions to share our weekly experiences. Two patients in critical condition and needed immediate dialysis treatment for their chronic illnesses went through successful treatment. Most patients could come back to appreciate the facility for their patience while treating them despite some harsh treatments from patients. This showed evidence of quality and safety practices.
Doctoral Prepared Nurse Role
The doctoral prepared nurse role will enable me to advocate for the implementation of evidence-based skills in the profession. Healthcare organizations should only hire those with advanced education and clinical expertise. This is to help reduce medical errors that increase mortality rates, especially in the upcoming healthcare organizations. For example, in the article, ‘Err is to human,’ different studies showed that the hospital had frequent deaths of patients due to lack of negligence and proper understanding of what the health professionals were doing (Donaldson et al.,2000). Therefore, advanced education levels in the nursing profession are essential in providing quality and safe nursing practice and healthcare delivery.
References
Donaldson, M. S., Corrigan, J. M., & Kohn, L. T. (Eds.). (2000). To err is human: building a safer health system. https://books.google.co.ke/books?hl=en&lr=&id=Jj25GlLKXSgC&oi=fnd&pg=PT25&dq=To+Err+is+Human:+Building+a+Safer+Health+System.+Show+details&ots=bJkgnrO38C&sig=XX4gg__s26v85kU8o3fnMy6MOqs&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=To%20Err%20is%20Human%3A%20Building%20a%20Safer%20Health%20System.%20Show%20details&f=false
Institute of Medicine. (2017). Crossing the quality chasm: a new health system for the 21st century. National Academies Press. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK222271/
PSNet. (2019). Culture of safety. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. https://psnet.ahrq.gov/primer/culture-safety
