SAFETY PERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT PAPER
NURS 490W – Nursing Leadership
(please see paper linked below)
Purpose of Assignment:
To identify a safety issue within a health care organization that needs change to promote better delivery of patient care. This change will also demonstrate an ability to collaboratively problem-solve in an interdisciplinary environment while working towards resolution of a common problem.
Student Approach to Assignment:
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To complete this assignment, myself and five other online classmates performed equal amounts of research to locate a prominent healthcare issue. Once we unanimously selected a relevant issue, we researched effective interventions to improve quality of care in that area of practice. The selected issue was catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTI). I was responsible for contributing “Stabilization” aspect of the change process as well as the conclusion to the paper. This assignment reflects my personal values by highlighting the importance stabilizing change and implementing evidence-based nursing interventions that will help improve patient care and safety.
Reason for Inclusion of this Assignment in the Portfolio:
As a nurse, patient care is my top priority and this assignment reflects the effort contributed to improving a common healthcare issue. This assignment also reflects the dedication and diligence of teamwork, as this written assignment was a group effort. Becoming more knowledgeable about particular healthcare problems improves my nursing practice and therefore helps me to grow as a nurse.
Communication
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Expresses oneself and communicates effectively with diverse groups using a variety of media
For this assignment, myself and others within the group communicated via email, google docs and text messaging. This communication was consistent and greatly contributed to our paper. We discussed ideas for the project and reviewed evidence-based nursing literature to compose our document.
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Demonstrates skills in using technology, informatics, and communication devices that support safe nursing practice
As a team, we demonstrated efficient technology skills by proficiently sending, editing and reviewing online documents.
Research
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o Shares research findings with colleagues
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As a team, we exchanged our research findings with one another. For example, I contributed my research on the most effective way to stabilize change. I shared my findings with the group and added it into our paper; the research I contributed was “This plan should be structured around the need to uphold monthly staff meetings, positive reinforcement and feedback for all participants, in-depth rounds and health assessments and incentives for participation (John, Jacob, Meskill, Moolsankar, & Altman, 2018).”
John, S., Jacob, M., Meskill, K., Moolsankar, K., & Altman, M. (2018). Changing practice
saving lives: Reduction of CAUTIs in the neurosurgical ICU. Nursing Management, 49(11),
12-16. doi:10.1097/01.NUMA.0000547258.15086.30
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Evaluates research that focuses on the efficacy and effectiveness of nursing interventions
For this research assignment, we focused on particular areas of nursing may cause issues in safety performance. We specified that CAUTIs were a prominent problem based on data and research. The slogan Take CAUTion was adopted from a study and used with our project (John, Jacob, Meskill, Moolsankar, & Altman, 2018). The slogan is written on a sign and displayed in the unit in an area where all can see, patients and families, and the CAUTI free days are proudly accumulated. Champion nurses conduct educational activities with skill check offs with return demonstrations on proper insertion and maintenance of catheters. Collecting data regarding the frequency of chlorhexidine gluconate (CHG) baths on patients with foleys, the duration of hospital stays on patients with foleys, the types of foleys used, and the staffing performing and documenting foley insertions and foley care should be determined. This will help the nurse manager discover where to focus a change in practices and what resources need to be gathered in order to prevent CAUTIs in the future.
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