Enhancing Quality and Safety
For this assessment, you will develop a 3-5 page paper that examines a safety quality issue pertaining to medication administration in a health care setting. You will analyze the issue and examine potential evidence-based and best-practice solutions from the literature as well as the role of nurses and other stakeholders in addressing the issue.
Health care organizations and professionals strive to create safe environments for patients however, due to the complexity of the health care system, maintaining safety can be a challenge. Since nurses comprise the largest group of health care professionals, a great deal of responsibility falls in the hands of practicing nurses. Quality improvement (QI) measures and safety improvement plans are effective interventions to reduce medical errors and sentinel events such as medication errors, falls, infections, and deaths. A 2000 Institute of Medicine (IOM) report indicated that almost one million people are harmed annually in the United States, (Kohn et al., 2000) and 210,000–440,000 die as a result of medical errors (Allen, 2013).
The role of the baccalaureate nurse includes identifying and explaining specific patient risk factors, incorporating evidence-based solutions to improving patient safety and coordinating care. A solid foundation of knowledge and understanding of safety organizations such as Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN), the Institute of Medicine (IOM), and The Joint Commission and its National Patient Safety Goals (NPSGs) program is vital to practicing nurses with regard to providing and promoting safe and effective patient care.
Demonstration of Proficiency
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:
• Competency 1: Analyze the elements of a successful quality improvement initiative.
• Explain evidence-based and best-practice solutions to improve patient safety focusing on medication administration and reducing costs.
• Competency 2: Analyze factors that lead to patient safety risks.
• Explain factors leading to a specific patient-safety risk focusing on medication administration.
• Competency 4: Explain the nurse’s role in coordinating care to enhance quality and reduce costs.
• Explain how nurses can help coordinate care to increase patient safety with medication administration and reduce costs.
• Identify stakeholders with whom nurses would need to coordinate to drive quality and safety enhancements with medication administration.
• Competency 5: Apply professional, scholarly, evidence-based strategies to communicate in a manner that supports safe and effective patient care.
• Communicate using writing that is clear, logical, and professional with correct grammar and spelling using current APA style.
References
Allen, M. (2013). How many die from medical mistakes in U.S. hospitals? Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2013/09/20/224507654/how-many-die-from-medical-mistakes-in-u-s-hospitals.
Kohn, L. T., Corrigan, J., & Donaldson, M. S. (Eds.). (2000). To err is human: Building a safer health system. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.
Professional Context
As a baccalaureate-prepared nurse, you will be responsible for implementing quality improvement (QI) and patient safety measures in health care settings. Effective quality improvement measures result in systemic and organizational changes, ultimately leading to the development of a patient safety culture.
Scenario
Consider a previous experience or hypothetical situation pertaining to medication errors, and consider how the error could have been prevented or alleviated with the use of evidence-based guidelines.
Choose a specific condition of interest surrounding a medication administration safety risk and incorporate evidence-based strategies to support communication and ensure safe and effective care.
For this assessment:
• Analyze a current issue or experience in clinical practice surrounding a medication administration safety risk and identify a quality improvement (QI) initiative in the health care setting.
Instructions
The purpose of this assessment is to better understand the role of the baccalaureate-prepared nurse in enhancing quality improvement (QI) measures that address a medication administration safety risk. This will be within the specific context of patient safety risks at a health care setting of your choice. You will do this by exploring the professional guidelines and best practices for improving and maintaining patient safety in health care settings from organizations such as QSEN and the IOM. Looking through the lens of these professional best practices to examine the current policies and procedures currently in place at your chosen organization and the impact on safety measures for patients surrounding medication administration, you will consider the role of the nurse in driving quality and safety improvements. You will identify stakeholders in QI improvement and safety measures as well as consider evidence-based strategies to enhance quality of care and promote medication administration safety in the context of your chosen health care setting.
Be sure that your plan addresses the following, which corresponds to the grading criteria in the scoring guide. Please study the scoring guide carefully so that you know what is needed for a distinguished score.
• Explain factors leading to a specific patient-safety risk focusing on medication administration.
• Explain evidence-based and best-practice solutions to improve patient safety focusing on medication administration and reducing costs.
• Explain how nurses can help coordinate care to increase patient safety with medication administration and reduce costs.
• Identify stakeholders with whom nurses would coordinate to drive safety enhancements with medication administration.
• Communicate using writing that is clear, logical, and professional, with correct grammar and spelling, using current APA style.
Additional Requirements
• Length of submission: 3–5 pages, plus title and reference pages.
• Number of references: Cite a minimum of 4 sources of scholarly or professional evidence that support your findings and considerations. Resources should be no more than 5 years old.
• APA formatting: References and citations are formatted according to current APA style.
Some sources for the paper:
Cho, S. M., & Choi, J. (2018). Patient safety culture associated with patient safety competencies among registered nurses. Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 50(5), 549–557. https://doi-org.library.capella.edu/10.1111/jnu.12413
This article discusses the importance of creating a unit-specific patient safety culture that is tailored to the competencies of the unit’s RNs in patient safety practice.
Stalter, A. M., &Mota, A. (2017). Recommendations for promoting quality and safety in health care systems. The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 48(7), 295–297.
This article provides recommendation to promote quality and safety education with a focus on systems thinking awareness among direct care nurses. A key point is error prevention, which requires a shared effort among all nurses.
Manno, M. S. (2016). The role transition characteristics of new registered nurses: A study of work environment influences and individual traits. (Publication No. 10037467) [Doctoral dissertation, Capella University]. http://library.capella.edu/login?qurl=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.proquest.com%2Fdissertations-theses%2Frole-transition-characteristics-new-registered%2Fdocview%2F1775393522%2Fse-2%3Faccountid%3D27965
This research study may be helpful in identifying traits and qualities of new registered nurses that are helpful in coordinating and leading quality and safety measures related to this assessment.
This article examines competencies that may help nurses collaborate more effectively to improve patient outcomes.
Poder, T. G., &Mattais, S. (2018). Systemic analysis of medication administration omission errors in a tertiary-care hospital in Quebec. Health Information Management Journal, 49(2-3), 99–107.
This examination of underlying systemic causes of medication errors may be useful as you consider QI vest practices and ways to coordinate care to increase safety and quality.
Antevy, P. (2017). How care collaboration is improving patient outcomes. EMS World, 46(4), 26–33.
This article examines competencies that may help health care professionals collaborate more effectively to improve patient outcomes.
Chen, H., Feng, H., Liao, L., Wu, X., Zhao, Y., Hu, M., Li, H., Hu, H., & Yang, X. (2020). Evaluation of quality improvement intervention with nurse training in nursing homes: A systematic review. Journal of Clinical Nursing, (29)15–16. https://doi-org.library.capella.edu/10.1111/jocn.15289
The need for implementing systemic quality improvement practices to improve safety and quality is discussed in this article.
Lyle-Edrosolo, G., & Waxman, K. (2016). Aligning healthcare safety and quality competencies: Quality and safety education for nurses (QSEN), the Joint Commission, and American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) Magnet® standards crosswalk. Nurse Leader, 14(1), 70–75.
This article attempts to align the language used in three quality and safety standards and reduce confusion for health care professionals.
Altmiller, G., & Hopkins-Pepe, L. (2019). Why quality and safety education for nurses (QSEN) matters in practice. The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 50(5), 199–200.
This article discusses the needs for quality and safety education in nursing and how the Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing supports QSEN competency implementation in practice.
Johnson, L., McNally, S., Meller, N., & Dempsey, J. (2019). The experience of undergraduate nursing students in patient safety education: A qualitative study. Australian Nursing and Midwifery Journal, 26(8), 55.
This article discusses educating nursing students about patient safety early within their learning journey and how it has shown to have a compelling positive impact on each individual’s knowledge, skills, and behavior growth surrounding the concept of patient safety.