Overview

Write 8 pages in which you identify a major patient-safety issue within your own organization and use evidence-based best practices and technology to develop a plan to improve the safety issue.

Quality improvement and patient safety are central to the nursing leadership role.

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:

Competency 2: Safety and Quality Practices - Incorporate concepts of patient safety, clinical management, and quality improvement to improve patient outcomes.

Describe a patient-safety issue.

Compare currently used organizational processes for handling patient safety issues with concepts, principles, and practices that contribute to quality improvement and patient safety.

Competency 3: Nursing Research and Informatics - Incorporate evidence-based practice interventions (for example, information systems and patient care technologies) as appropriate for managing the acute and chronic care of patients, promoting health across the lifespan.

Recommend evidence-based interventions to address specific patient-safety issues.

Explain how technology can be used to improve patient safety.

Competency 4: Policy, Finance, and Regulations - Understand the scope and role of policy, finance, and regulatory environments in relationship to individual and population outcomes.

Analyze the legal and ethical consequences of not addressing patient-safety issues.

Competency 5: Communication - Communicate effectively with all members of the health care team, including interdepartmental and interdisciplinary collaboration for quality outcomes.

Write coherently to support a central idea in appropriate APA format with correct grammar, usage, and mechanics as expected of a nursing professional.

Competency 6: Organizational and Systems Management - Apply knowledge of organizational behavior, nursing theory, and systems (micro- and macro-) as appropriate for the scope and role of one's own practice.

Identify organizational barriers to change.

Describe strategies to overcome organizational barriers to change.

Context

Central to the nursing leadership role, quality improvement and patient safety are analyzed from many perspectives. Types of quality improvement and patient safety programs may range from internal, organization-based quality improvement team reports to external benchmarks from The Joint Commission, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), MAGNET, and numerous other organizations.

A landmark 2001 publication by the Institute of Medicine (IOM) identified the imperative to focus on quality care and patient safety. The initiative to create cultures of patient safety and quality care remain at the forefront of the health care leadership landscape. As a future nursing leader, you must understand the components and use of effective tools for successful quality improvement programs within your practice setting.

In this program, you have also examined the application of research and information technology in the nursing profession. Information systems and patient-care technologies have contributed in many ways to improved patient outcomes; however, safeguards, secure practices, and ethical standards are necessary to promote and support data security, patient confidentiality, and regulatory requirements.

You have also investigated the effective use of patient-care technologies, communication systems, and information systems across the health-illness continuum.

Questions to Consider

To deepen your understanding, you are encouraged to consider the questions below and discuss them with a fellow learner, a work associate, an interested friend, or a member of the business community.

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How do external organizations analyze quality improvement?

How can data from patient-safety initiatives be used to help other organizations?

Suggested Resources

To help you prepare for this assessment, review the resources you used and the assessments you completed in BSN-FP4004, BSN-FP4006, BSN-FP4008, and BSN-FP4016.

Assessment Instructions

Preparation

As you prepare for this assessment, complete the following:

Before you begin, examine your organization's history of safety in a specific area and how your organization addresses patient safety issues.

If possible, consult with a key stakeholder in the organization (such as an administrator) to better understand specific patient-safety concerns and how the organization is working to resolve the concerns. This person should also be able to discuss some of the organizational barriers impacting the patient safety issue.

Next, look at the basic concepts, principles, and practices that contribute to organizational quality improvement and patient safety. Review the literature for best practices and how technology might be used to improve the issue.

Finally, be sure to consider the legal and ethical implications associated with the safety issue, as well as possible organizational barriers to change.

Directions

As you construct this assessment, address each point as completely as possible:

Describe a patient-safety issue within your organization.

Compare the way your organization addresses patient-safety issues with the concepts, principles, and practices that contribute to quality improvement and patient safety.

Analyze the legal and ethical consequences of not addressing the issue.

Recommend evidence-based interventions to address the patient-safety issue.

Explain how technology can be used to improve the issue.

Identify possible organizational barriers to change (budget, vision, technology, et cetera).

Describe strategies to overcome organizational barriers to change, based on your knowledge of the organization.

Additional Requirements

Format: Include a title page and reference page. Use APA style and formatting.

Length: Ensure your completed assessment is 8 pages in length, not including the title page and reference page.

References: Cite at least five current scholarly or professional resources.

Font: Use double-spaced, 12-point, Times New Roman font.