Reflection of the Nursing Role
Assignment:
Reflect upon the patient experience, patient safety, and healthcare cost as well as Joint Commission’s role in quality healthcare. Write a paper that addresses the following questions:
- How would you apply the principles of the Triple Aim initiative to improve quality, safety and satisfaction in the acute care or long-term care setting?
- Reflect on your current or future role in healthcare. How you would you, in the role of director of nursing or healthcare administrator contribute to improving cost effective quality care, patient satisfaction, and patient safety?
- What practices would you apply to minimize medical errors among front-line nursing staff?
Assignment Expectations
Length: 1500-2000 words in length
Structure: Include a title page and reference page in APA format. These do not count towards the minimal word amount for this assignment. Your essay must include an introduction and a conclusion.
References: Use the appropriate APA style in-text citations and references for all resources utilized to answer the questions. A minimum of two (2) scholarly sources are required for this assignment.
Sample Answer
Reflection of the Nursing Role
The focus of the healthcare industry has shifted towards quality and cost-effective care that increases patient safety and satisfaction. Healthcare professionals are crucial agents in promoting the three components. In efforts to achieve the components, various recommendations have been made by relevant agents or organizations. This essay reflects how I would apply the Triple Aim initiative to improve the three components, a reflection of my future role as a Director of Nursing, and how I would contribute towards improving cost-effective quality care, patient satisfaction and safety, and practices to minimize medical errors.
Applying The Principles of The Triple Aim Initiative to Improve Quality, Safety, and Satisfaction in The Acute Care or Long-Term Care Setting
The Triple Aim initiative is a framework that was developed by the Institute for Healthcare Improvement to help healthcare systems optimize their performance through various metrics. I would apply the Triple Aim initiative in acute care or long-term setting to improve the quality and safety of care and satisfaction by implementing the three-pronged approaches of the initiative. One of the approaches that I would implement is improving patient experience. Patient experience encompasses various aspects, including easy access to healthcare information, timely appointments, and effective communication. Improving patient experience requires assessing the overall health of the populations served, identifying existing concerns, the risks involved, and the overall mortality of the population (Institute for Healthcare Improvement, 2021). The assessment would enable the professionals and the facility to identify the expectations of the patients. According to Sturmberg and Bircher (2019), identifying patient expectations is key in achieving patient satisfaction as the performance of services offered matches those expectations. I would ensure that patients can navigate the healthcare system more easily by utilizing electronic health records, advocating for shared decision making, patient-centered care coordination, and utilizing managed care organizations (MCOs).
I would also implement the second approach, which aims at reducing costs. The cost reduction component encourages healthcare organizations and professionals to identify ways to reduce costs while increasing the quality of care offered to patients. Healthcare costs can be reduced by establishing organizational policies that encourage delivery of relevant and necessary care, minimize medical errors that increase costs, and offers recommendation on affordable care. Diagnostic errors are the primary reason for most medical liability claims and cause 10% of patient deaths (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, n.d). I would implement organizational policies that promote proper diagnosis before issuing a prescription and encourage care coordination between health care providers for effective and better treatment plans. Such policies would involve consultations to be made by very professionals at various points of care, recommendations on generic drugs that are equally effective as the brand name to increase affordable care, and utilization of relevant technology for increased accuracy and performance appraisal methods. Such policies would improve not only quality but also the safety of care.
I would also implement the third component, improving the population’s health. This component emphasizes the importance of identifying and addressing health risks in the communities served (Institute for Healthcare Improvement, 2021). To improve the quality and safety of care and improve satisfaction, I would embrace this component and identify the health risks in the community served by the acute or the long-term care facility as all the community members are potential patients. The component provides detailed information about the community’s needs and expectations, including those influenced by social and cultural factors. I would also embrace the recommendations made by IHI to ensure that the three interdependent goals are achieved. The recommendations include redesigning primary care structures and services, improving health promotion and disease prevention, involving individual patients and families in designing care models, and building a cost-control platform (Institute for Healthcare Improvement, 2021). To ensure that the implementation is successful and improved accordingly, I will implement accreditation systems, clinical guidelines, performance indicators, total quality management, and patient safety systems.
How I Would in the role of Director of Nursing or Healthcare Administrator Contribute to Improving Cost Effective Quality Care, Patient Satisfaction, And Patient Safety
The Director of Nursing leads and supervises a nursing unit. They ensure that all the professionals perform productively and efficiently. They act as the point of contact between physicians with other personnel, oversee budgets of the department, supervise all nursing staff, manage medical records and patients’ data, provide ongoing training opportunities, implement new procedures, and maintain high standards of care. They may also be responsible for recruiting and hiring new nursing staff. They ensure that the policies they operate enable the staff to meet organizational goals and improve performance.
I would use the position to improve cost-effective quality care, increase patient satisfaction and safety by implementing relevant and effective policies. Relevant and effective policies align with other healthcare-related goals and performance measures. Examples include National Patient Safety Goals developed by the Joint Commission board and nursing-sensitive indicators. I would enact policies that address major healthcare challenges such as nursing shortages resulting from turnover rates and other work-related issues such as burnout, work overload, and work-related stress. Policies implemented would increase the hiring rate while reducing workload and setting appropriate working hours.
I would also equip the healthcare staff with the appropriate skills and competencies to improve the quality and safety of care delivered and patient satisfaction. This would be achieved through staff education and training in various areas such as culturally competent care and utilization of various healthcare information technology and other relevant technology. I would also promote evidence-based care by providing necessary resources and time. This can be achieved by ensuring healthy working hours that allow the staff to engage in research. According to Sonğur et al. (2018), evidence-based practice can reduce inaccurate or unnecessary activities and medical errors that increase patient risk of health-related complications or death and can improve patient safety by improving the process of health services. Major barriers to implementing evidence-based practice are lack of resources and time constraints. The evidence-based practice would effectively address patient concerns in long-term care, including cases of patient falls, hospital-acquired infections, adverse drug interactions, and pressure ulcers.
As a leader, I would have the capacity to set an organizational culture characterized by components that promote cost-effective quality care, patient safety, and patient satisfaction. Such components include collaboration, shared decision-making, and effective communication. Such components ensure that professions work together not only among themselves but also with patients and families to implement the best treatment plans to generate better patient and health outcomes.
