Quality Improvement Initiative: Safe Nurse Staffing
You will propose a quality improvement initiative from your place of employment that could easily be implemented if approved. Assume you are presenting this program to the board for approval of funding. Write an executive summary to present to the board, from which the board will make its decision to fund your program or project. Include the following:
- The purpose of the quality improvement initiative.
- The target population or audience.
- The benefits of the quality improvement initiative.
- The interprofessional collaboration that would be required to implement the quality improvement initiative.
- The cost or budget justification.
- The basis upon which the quality improvement initiative will be evaluated.
Sample Answer
Quality Improvement Initiative: Safe Nurse Staffing
A facility with safe nurse staffing has the right combination of nursing skills, knowledge, and experience to provide adequate care to patients’ needs. Moreover, the working conditions facilitate nurses to deliver healthcare services safely (International Council of Nurses, 2018). The quality improvement initiative aims at attaining safe nurse staffing at a healthcare facility in Pennsylvania. Thus, the executive summary captures the need for the initiative’s purpose, the target population, benefits, interprofessional collaboration requirements, budget justification, and the program evaluation.
Purpose of the Initiative
The project seeks to implement a practical solution to the nurse staffing crisis that many healthcare facilities face. The initiative will introduce policies and interventions to improve the nursing environment, making it easier for nurses to deliver quality care. The project will also aim at enhancing workplace culture, which will ensure that caregivers are in the right physical and mental condition to provide care. Finally, the project will focus on interprofessional collaboration. It will describe how clinical and non-clinical professionals can collaborate to enhance safe nurse staffing.
Target Population
The initiatives’ target population is healthcare workers and administration. The administrative figures will be integral to enacting policy changes that support safe nurse staffing. They will also authorize the financing of the policy implementation phase. Meanwhile, healthcare workers will constitute nurses and all other professionals who affect nursing outcomes. They include nursing aides, physicians, accountants, recruitment personnel, communication managers, etc. Therefore, implementing the initiative will require the corporation of almost all professionals within the facility.
Benefits of the Initiative
Safe nurse staffing will accrue several benefits to the facility. First, the workplace will acquire a more flexible and adaptative culture. A regressive workplace culture makes it harder for the staff to adapt to changes in healthcare needs. Therefore, implementing the project will make it easier for nurses to embrace new care delivery methods and appreciate the patient needs’ diversity (Neves et al. 2021). Next, the initiative will enhance the care delivery environment. Nursing resources will be more readily available to caregivers, allowing them to provide timely and comprehensive interventions. The nurses will also be well-trained in using the equipment, thereby enhancing patient safety and care outcomes. The initiative will also present long-term financial benefits. For instance, a reputation of exemplary care quality will attract more clients, thereby increasing revenue. The facility will also reduce overhead expenditures due to untimely recruitments, resource underutilization, and administrative redundancies.
Interprofessional Collaboration
Nurses will have to collaborate with other professionals to ensure the success of the initiative. First, they must cooperate with administrators/heads of departments to ensure harmony between planning and execution. The cooperation will allow caregivers and managers to integrate their objectives, creating a unified working approach. Nurse leaders must also work with the recruitment team to ensure that new employees fill the current workforce’s knowledge, skills, and experience gaps. Finally, nurses must collaborate with the procurement department to ensure that there are reliable equipment and resources for care delivery. Other collaborations will vary depending on specific care settings and patient needs. Thus, the interprofessional collaboration will be vital to the initiative’s success.
Budget Justification
The initiative will have several major expenditures in recruitment, procurement, and staff training. Hiring new professionals will result in more expenses for the facility in the recruitment process and wage bill. Thus, there must be a sizeable fund to accommodate the increase in personnel numbers and competency. The project will also attract expenditure in acquiring modern equipment and inventory to ensure safe nurse staffing. For instance, purchasing more vitals-monitoring machines will help nurses track changes in patients’ conditions, allowing more time interventions. However, the equipment is expensive, hence the need for proper financial planning. Finally, the facility will pay for the existing workforce to receive training in equipment handling, workplace culture, and patient safety interventions to guarantee positive outcomes.
The facility must find ways to finance the initiative. Initially, the administration will rely on additional investment and donor programs. The management must pitch the idea to shareholders and other associated partners, hoping that they will contribute towards implementing the project. However, over time, the facility must become financially sufficient. Hence, it will rely on benefits resulting from a larger client base (due to positive patient satisfaction and experience), and reduced turnover and recruitment costs. Finally, since the facility will have better quality outcomes, such as a lower thirty-day readmission rate, it could earn incentives from the Medicare-based Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP). Thus, the project is financially feasible and rewarding in the long run. Figure 1 shows an estimated volume of financial contribution from the various funding sources in the first three years.
