CASE STUDY 1 & 2
A group of DNP prepared clinicians at a community clinic note a recent increase in clients presenting with complications related to uncontrolled hypertension. The clinicians decide to briefly review a few charts in an attempt to identify a possible cause. The clinicians conclude the clients’ inability to manage lifestyle behaviors is the reason for the recent increase in complications.
A preliminary review of the literature by the clinicians reveal evidence supports implementing individualized educational sessions to decrease complications related uncontrolled hypertension. Based on this information the clinicians begin to develop a plan to implement and evaluate a project.
The DNP clinicians returned to the literature for a more thorough review. The clinicians concluded the intervention of the project would be individualized educational sessions addressing the client’s self-efficacy for chronic disease management. The clinicians located a tool through the Stanford Patient Education Research Center that was developed and tested to measure the clinical problem of interest.
The clinicians decided to use this tool to measure the outcome of increased self-efficacy for chronic disease management. In addition, the demographic data points of age, gender, ethnicity, and use of the Internet for health information were selected to describe the characteristics of the participants of the project.
Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.
Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.
Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.
The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.
Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
Global healthcare systems seek to achieve the overriding objectives of promoting care quality, affordability, accessibility, and timeliness. These priority areas validate the need to incorporate advanced technologies when delivering patient-centered and coordinated care. Although technologies increase process efficiency, accuracy, timeliness, and convenience, the underlying social determinants of health, such as geographical factors, built environment, and poverty, result in health inequalities.
As a result, telehealth technology emerges as a profound tool for intercepting sources of health disparities by bridging distance gaps and providing alternatives for care coordination, interdisciplinary team collaboration, and the overall healthcare organization. This annotated bibliography provides insights into the role of telemedicine technology in promoting patient satisfaction, interdisciplinary team collaboration, care coordination, and productivity. Also, it expounds on organizational factors that influence the incorporation of telehealth in daily care practices.
Often, health problems such as high disease prevalence, limited access to quality care, and delays in care provision are disproportionate to low-income populations and rural communities. As a result, it is essential to address these challenges by transforming care delivery mechanisms and adopting technologies that offer cheaper, faster, and more convenient alternatives. Eventually, telehealth technology improves care coordination and provision by enabling caregivers to conduct distant services such as medication administration, diagnostics, vital sign monitoring, and e-consultations (Kichloo et al., 2020).
The current literature supports the plausibility of incorporating telemedicine technology in promoting care quality, affordability, timeliness, and convenience. For instance, I selected four scholarly articles from reputable databases such as Elsevier, SAGE, and BMJ to develop an annotated bibliography regarding telehealth technology. Further, I used keywords such as telehealth benefits, telehealth technology and care coordination, and telehealth barriers to select credible sources. Finally, I applied the CRAAP (currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, and purpose) test to assess the sources’ credibility in providing insights into the importance of telemedicine.
Kichloo, A., Albosta, M., Dettloff, K., Wani, F., El-Amir, Z., Singh, J., Aljadah, M., Chakinala, R. C., Kanugula, A. K., Solanki, S., & Chugh, S. (2020). Telemedicine, the current COVID-19 pandemic, and the future: A narrative review and perspectives moving forward in the USA. Family Medicine and Community Health, 8(3), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1136/fmch-2020-000530
In this scholarly article, Kichloo et al. (2020) conducted a narrative review to examine the current state of telemedicine utilization amid the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic on care accessibility. The researchers define telehealth as “a service that seeks to improve a patient’s health by permitting two-way, real-time interactive communication between the patient and the physician at a distant site” (p. 1). In this sense, telehealth utilizes telecommunication and information technology (IT) to provide access to health assessment, diagnosis, interventions, consultation, supervision, and information across distance.
Kichloo et al. (2020) reviewed a 2019 report by the Pew Research Center, which indicates that 90% of Americans can access the internet while 81% of Americans use smartphones. The recent increase in mobile technologies and usage facilitates telehealth effectiveness. The researchers conclude that telehealth utilization allows caregivers to collaborate with patients to provide high-quality care while maintaining physical distancing to prevent COVID-19 transmission. As a result, the study supports the contention that telehealth technology increases care convenience, patient satisfaction, and interdisciplinary collaboration, especially for patients in rural areas.
Davidson, R., Barrett, D. I., Rixon, L., & Newman, S. (2020). How the integration of telehealth and coordinated care approaches impact health care service organization structure and ethos: Mixed Methods Study. JMIR Nursing, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.2196/20282
In this scholarly study, Davidson et al. (2020) conducted a multinational project to explore the use of coordinated care and telehealth. The study’s objective was to assess how healthcare organizations’ setup influences the perceptions and experience of service managers and frontline staff during the development and deployment of integrated care with and without telehealth. According to Davidson et al. (2020), telehealth and telecare are assistive technologies that support coordinated care of patients with social care needs or chronic conditions such as diabetes and heart disease. In this sense, these technologies enable information exchange between agencies, remote monitoring of health status, and reduce hospital visits, curtailing care costs.
Despite these potential benefits of telehealth, various factors, including lack of managerial knowledge, nurse shortage, and underfunded social care services, compromise the technology’s effectiveness. The researchers propose continuous organizational evolution as a way of improving telehealth technology. Above, the research reveals a positive correlation between telehealth technology and effective care coordination, improved performance, and interdisciplinary collaboration. As a result, it is a credible evidence source that supports the topic.
Gajarawala, S. N., & Pelkowski, J. N. (2021). Telehealth benefits and barriers. The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, 17(2), 218–221. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nurpra.2020.09.013
In this article, Gajarawala and Pelkowski (2021) focus on the telehealth benefits and potential barriers. They define telehealth as a “subset of e-health and the use of telecommunication technology in health care delivery, information, and education” (p. 218). Further, the researchers contend that telehealth technology supports various components of telemedicine, including medical education, remote patient monitoring, patient consultation via videoconferencing, wireless health applications, and transmission of imaging and medical reports. The original idea of implementing telehealth technology was to provide quality and convenient care to rural and underserved patients. However, the technology proves effective and successful in multiple medication specialties and settings.
According to Gajarawala and Pelkowski (2021), telehealth provides access to resources and care for patients in rural areas where caregiver shortages are prevalent. Further, the technology improves efficiency without higher net cost, reduces patient travel and wait time, and allows for comparable or improved quality of care (Gajarawala & Pelkowski, 2021). However, organizations should ensure data accuracy, promote patient privacy and confidentiality, and curtail fraud to ensure the technology’s applicability and effectiveness. This study validates the essence of transforming organizational culture to assimilate telehealth technology.
Neville, C. W. (2018). Telehealth: A balanced look at incorporating this technology into practice. SAGE Open Nursing, 4, 237796081878650. https://doi.org/10.1177/2377960818786504
The scholarly article explores the use of telehealth and the ability to provide healthcare services to patients through interactive technology and telecommunication tools (Neville, 2018). The researcher argues that telehealth includes various routes of care delivery, including patient consultations through teleconferencing, image transmission, e-health patient portals, vital sign remote monitoring, consumer-focused wireless applications, and continued medical education. These multiple care delivery mechanisms translate to benefits such as telesurgery/remote robotic surgery, timely interdisciplinary team collaboration, and communication, cost reduction by reducing clinical visits, and access to healthcare professionals, services, and improved care.
However, Neville (2018) identifies multiple organizational factors that operate as barriers to effective telehealth utilization. For instance, the article singles out legal and ethical compliance, fraud, privacy, and malpractice liability as potential barriers to telehealth’s effectiveness. Also, Neville (2018) argues that telehealth implementation is a cost-intensive process due to the overhead costs of software, hardware, and other communication devices. As a result, this study offers a two-sided perspective on telehealth, making it a credible and reliable evidence source for the topic.
Despite the underlying barriers to telehealth’s effectiveness, the current literature links the technology with improved care quality, enhanced interdisciplinary collaboration and productivity, patient satisfaction, and care coordination. However, health organizations should focus on transforming their culture and sustaining norms that support telehealth. For instance, staff training and adequate resource allocations can improve telehealth by bolstering employees’ knowledge of the essentials for telehealth technology and enhancing successful implementation.
Further, health institutions need to transform privacy policies to prevent incidences of fraud and other cybersecurity threats emanating from utilizing virtual platforms. Finally, organizations should collaborate with government agencies to adopt appropriate reimbursement models to reduce the cost burden of installing software, hardware, and other devices pertinent to telehealth.
Davidson, R., Barrett, D. I., Rixon, L., & Newman, S. (2020). How the integration of telehealth and coordinated care approaches impact health care service organization structure and ethos: Mixed Methods Study. JMIR Nursing, 3(1). https://doi.org/10.2196/20282
Gajarawala, S. N., & Pelkowski, J. N. (2021). Telehealth benefits and barriers. The Journal for Nurse Practitioners, 17(2), 218–221. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nurpra.2020.09.013
Kichloo, A., Albosta, M., Dettloff, K., Wani, F., El-Amir, Z., Singh, J., Aljadah, M., Chakinala, R. C., Kanugula, A. K., Solanki, S., & Chugh, S. (2020). Telemedicine, the current COVID-19 pandemic, and the future: A narrative review and perspectives moving forward in the USA. Family Medicine and Community Health, 8(3). https://doi.org/10.1136/fmch-2020-000530
Neville, C. W. (2018). Telehealth: A balanced look at incorporating this technology into practice. SAGE Open Nursing, 4, 237796081878650. https://doi.org/10.1177/2377960818786504
Also Read:
Assessment 1 Instructions: Nursing Informatics in Health Care NURS-FPX4040
Protected Health Information NURS-FPX4040 Assessment 2
Select NURS-FPX4040 Assessment 4 Informatics and Nursing Sensitive Quality IndicatorsNURS-FPX4040 Assessment 4 Informatics and Nursing Sensitive Quality IndicatorsBefore you begin to develop the assessment you are encouraged to complete the Annotated Bibliography Formative Assessment. Completing this activity will help you succeed with the assessment and counts towards course engagement.
Rapid changes in information technology go hand-in-hand with progress in quality health care delivery, nursing practice, and interdisciplinary team collaboration. The following are only a few examples of how the health care field uses technology to provide care to patients across multiple settings:
Technology is essential to the advancement of the nursing profession, maintaining quality care outcomes, patient safety, and research.
This assessment will give you the opportunity to deepen your knowledge of how technology can enhance quality and safety standards in nursing. You will prepare an annotated bibliography on technology in nursing. A well-prepared annotated bibliography is a comprehensive commentary on the content of scholarly publications and other sources of evidence about a selected nursing-related technology.
A bibliography of this type provides a vehicle for workplace discussion to address gaps in nursing practice and to improve patient care outcomes. As nurses become more accountable in their practice, they are being called upon to expand their role of caregiver and advocate to include fostering research and scholarship to advance nursing practice. An annotated bibliography stimulates innovative thinking to find solutions and approaches to effectively and efficiently address these issues.
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the course competencies through the following assessment scoring guide criteria:
Competency 3: Evaluate the impact of patient care technologies on desired outcomes.
Competency 4: Recommend the use of a technology to enhance quality and safety standards for patients.
Competency 5: Apply professional, scholarly communication to facilitate use of health information and patient care technologies.
Also Read:
Protected Health Information NURS-FPX4040
NURS-FPX4040 Assessment 3 Instructions Technology in Nursing
NURS FPX4040 Capella University Proposal to Hire a Nurse Informaticist Paper
To successfully complete this assessment, perform the following preparatory activities:
Examples of topics to consider for your annotated bibliography include:
Conduct a library search using the various electronic databases available through the Capella University Library.
Scan the search results related to your chosen technology.
Select four peer-reviewed publications focused on your selected topic that are the most interesting to you.
Evaluate the impact of patient care technologies on desired outcomes.
Notes
Prepare a 4–6 page annotated bibliography in which you identify and describe peer-reviewed publications that promote the use of your selected technology to enhance quality and safety standards in nursing. Be sure that your annotated bibliography includes all of the following elements:
Introduction to the Selected Technology Topic
Annotation Elements
Conclusion/Recommendation
Example Assessment: You may use the following to give you an idea of what a Proficient or higher rating on the scoring guide would look like:
Portfolio Prompt: Save your presentation to your ePortfolio. Submissions to the ePortfolio will be part of your final capstone course.
Learn how to choose appropriate Library and Internet resources for topics in the Bachelor of Nursing program.
TOUR THE LIBRARY
“How do I find journal articles?” “Where are the books?”
The Capella University Library has millions of scholarly sources, purchased specifically for your needs.
It also had useful tools to help you track and organize your research.
View this short tutorial for step by step instructions on searching the Capella University Library.
HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE
This guide contains tips on how to use the Capella University Library to find resources for your program.
If you still have questions, visit the Ask a Librarian page or click the below link to learn how to get assistance. We’re here to help!
We have live librarian assistance! Get help during library hours through phone or chat, or email the library anytime and we’ll get back to you within 8 business hours.
PROFESSIONAL NURSING ORGANIZATIONS
This is just a sampling of the many nursing associations covering every nursing specialization at the regional, national, and international levels. Descriptions are taken from the websites.
The technology topic that I have selected for the purpose of this assessment is the use of telehealth-videoconferencing in the provision of care services in the psychiatric department. The psychiatric department is my current area of practice.
The rationale for selecting this health technology is that it is successfully being adopted in other departments in my institution, and success has been recorded. It is, therefore, a topic of high interest, and I believe that the nurses and other stakeholders will also consider the proposal of implementing the technology in the psychiatric department.
I used the school library databases and Google Scholar to conduct my research. The search terms I used are the impact of telehealth technology in the psychiatric department on patient safety and quality of care. In all the studies and articles that appeared as a result of the search, I ruled out our articles that are not peer-reviewed, websites, and other blogs since I only required information from peer-reviewed sources.
I also made sure that the sources are current, from five years, to ensure that the information I get is recent enough and includes current evidence-based resources to enhance quality and safety standards in nursing.
In the Best Practices in Videoconferencing-Based Telemental health April 2018 article, the authors explore how videoconferencing telehealth technology has been applied across different healthcare settings to increase access to safe and quality care. The article focuses on developing, implementing, administering, and providing telemental health services in the psychiatric departments.
The authors further validate that the application of videoconferencing telementalhealth technology is safe for use for both psychiatric patients and care providers. The article states that the relevance of technology in nursing practice includes easing the provision of services to patients who are afraid to seek mental health help in healthcare institutions and easing health promotion initiatives by the nurses.
Such aspects as patient education are more manageable when the patients and their families are reached through telehealth technology such as videoconferencing. Also, the technology is safe for use since it must have met the state requirements and HIPAA guidelines before implementation in any healthcare setting.
The article also mentions the guidelines the American Psychiatric Association APA and the American Telemedicine Association ATA set for implementing telehealth technology. The guidelines include having patient privacy, confidentiality, and security safeguards considered while implementing the technology.
The Role of telemental health, tele-consultation, and tele-supervision in post-disaster and low resource settings is a review of current literature to recommend telemental health to healthcare institutions. The review found that current research on telemental health technology shows the need for the application of telehealth technology in the psychiatric departments to address underserved populations that are most affected by mental health conditions and cannot access mental health services effectively.
The authors argue that applying telehealth technology in psychiatric departments will improve the quality of care given to psychiatric patients, especially for hard-to-reach health populations. Telemedicine offers real-time collaboration between the patient and the care providers, consultation, and supervision, easing access to mental health services across populations.
Telemental health ensures constant communication between the care providers and the patient, thus ensuring the best treatment is offered to the patient. However, the review mentions the barriers that implementation of telehealth technology may face, including technical, financial, and cultural barriers. Healthcare institutions seeking to implement the technology should consider the barriers and strategize how to overcome them.
In this article, Sloane et al. studied the effect of changes in hospital nursing resources on patient safety and the quality of care. The study focused on technological changes such as the implementation of telehealth technology such as videoconferencing. The study was based on the hypothesis that patient safety and quality of care improve with improvement in nursing resources of a hospital setting.
The study’s results confirmed the hypothesis and found that improvement in nursing resources, especially technological advancement plays a significant role in enhancing patient safety and improving the quality of care. Videoconferencing telehealth technology impacts both the nurses and the interdisciplinary healthcare team positively.
The technology makes the working environment more conducive and enhances skills advancement for the interprofessional team through continuous technical training. This article informs the healthcare professionals and other stakeholders in the healthcare field on the impact of improving healthcare technology in their institutions on improving patient safety and care quality.
The article reports a study of the psychiatry field’s technological opportunities since the Covid-19 pandemic. The study is peer-reviewed and presents data congruent to other research studies. The need for the application of telehealth technology significantly intensified with the need for maintaining social distancing policies that were developed during the pandemic.
However, the authors report that care provision using the virtual and physical blended method proved as effecti
In this interview, I talked with Mrs. Andy, an advanced practice registered nurse in one of the largest hospitals in my state. Mrs. Andy agreed to have the interview through videoconferencing through Google Meet. She works as a nurse manager in the surgical inpatient unit, which has a capacity of forty inpatient beds. Mrs. Andy has been working for the past six years as a certified nurse practitioner in the same organization and was promoted two years ago to work as a nurse manager in charge of seven other nurses in the same unit. She has administrative as well as clinical roles and usually balances these roles daily.
The purpose of this interview was to explore how she works collaboratively to reduce readmission rates in the surgical unit. Obamacare introduced the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) to incentivize reimbursements to prevent readmissions and improve quality (U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, 2021). As an administrative nurse, Mrs. Andy has encountered various issues surrounding patient care quality and readmission reduction.
During interdisciplinary intra-organizational meetings, she has discussed readmission prevention and regular reports about the same. Her strategies to reduce readmission include incorporating technology, preventing medical and medication errors, patient education, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Her organization has been rigorous on matters of unplanned readmission and thus, the need for multimodal approaches to prevent unplanned readmission.
Improving patient care quality through readmission reduction was an outstanding issue in the interview. The interviewee identified surgical site infection as the major cause of readmission in her unit. Infections are a major patient safety concern in nursing and healthcare quality. In Mrs. Andy’s case, surgical site infections need to be prevented from reducing the cost of care, mortality, and morbidity (Borchardt & Tzizik, 2018). It requires an interdisciplinary approach that would improve teamwork to prevent these infections and reduce new incidences of infection in the surgical unit.
ADKAR change model by Jeff Hiatt is an appropriate model that would lead to interdisciplinary action for this issue. This model is an acronym that stands for five basic steps: awareness, desire, knowledge, ability, and reinforcement (Kachian et al., 2018). This theory would help create an interdisciplinary solution by involving teamwork and awareness. According to Balluck et al. (2020), this model for change management requires constant ongoing collaboration and communication that would improve the interdisciplinary approach.
This theory is relevant to the issue at Mrs. Andy’s unit because various stakeholders are involved. My sources by Balluck et al. (2020) and Kachian et al. (2018) are peer-reviewed scholarly journal articles published within the last five years. Therefore, it is a credible source. The application of the ADKAR model in Balluck et al. (2020)’s study relates to the need for change in infection control as both involve change management for infection prevention.
Enhancing an interdisciplinary solution to this issue will require a transformational leadership strategy. From the transformational leadership style in nursing, transformational strategy deviation from normal protocols to effect change require the leader to act as a role model and inspire other team members for the impending change. As a leader, I would empower my change team through awareness and expressing the need for change to ensure participation according to the ADKAR model for change.
This strategy would lead to an interdisciplinary approach because, as a leader, I will be required to collaborate with all stakeholders during the planning and intervention phases of change. Therefore, understanding their roles and their capabilities and readiness to effect change will be evaluated in the interdisciplinary team. My source by Hart et al. (2020) is from a scholarly peer-reviewed journal (SAGE journals). The information is relevant o my field of practice, and the authors are a practitioner in healthcare.
Incorporating collaborative approaches in this change management for infection prevention will require the application of the ADKAR theory and transformational strategy of leadership. Key collaborative strategies will include improving team access to information and evidence-based practice, open communication with the team, and taking a personal interest in staff. According to Bergstedt & Wei (2020), these fundamental strategies promote proline staff engagement and collaboration.
In their systematic literature review, ensuring shared values, practicing transformational leadership, and providing access to knowledge and resources enhance change and staff participation for quality improvement. Specific collaborative strategies take a personal interest in individual team members to discover and understand them and ensure open and effective communication to build trusting relationships and keep the team on the same page. The source by Bergstedt & Wei (2020) is an incredible and high-level evidence source. It is recent and was published by two nurses with Ph.D. The information is relevant to application in my practice and providing an interdisciplinary solution.
The interview with Mrs. Andy provided insight into the need for infection prevention to improve care quality and patient safety to reduce readmission. The ADKAR change model and transformational leadership would be used to guide change management and interdisciplinary approach. Quality and credible sources have been used to back these strategies.
Balluck, J., Asturi, E., & Brockman, V. (2020). Use of the ADKAR® and CLARC ® change models to navigate staffing model changes during the COVID-19 pandemic. Nurse Leader, 18(6), 539–546. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.mnl.2020.08.006
Bergstedt, K., & Wei, H. (2020). Leadership strategies to promote frontline nursing staff engagement. Nursing Management, 51(2), 48–53. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.NUMA.0000651204.39553.79
Borchardt, R. A., & Tzizik, D. (2018). Update on surgical site infections: The new CDC guidelines. JAAPA?: Official Journal of the American Academy of Physician Assistants, 31(4), 52–54. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.JAA.0000531052.82007.42
Hart, A., Biggs, S., Scott-Bottoms, S., Buttery, L., Dennis, S., Duncan, S., Ebersöhn, L., Flegg, M., Kelso, C., Khaile, N. M., Mampane, M. R., Mampane, N. S., Nash, D. J., Ngoma, R., & Theron, L. C. (2020). Negotiating leadership in interdisciplinary co-productive research: A case study of an international community-based project between collaborators from South Africa and the United Kingdom. SAGE Open, 10(4), 215824402097159. https://doi.org/10.1177/2158244020971598
Kachian, A., Elyasi, S., & Haghani, H. (2018). ADKAR Model and Nurses’ Readiness for Change. Journal of Client-Centered Nursing Care, 4(4), 203–212. https://doi.org/10.32598/jccnc.4.4.203
U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. (2021, December 1). Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP). Cms.gov. https://www.cms.gov/Medicare/Medicare-Fee-for-Service-Payment/AcuteInpatientPPS/Readmissions-Reduction-Program
For this assessment, you will create a 2-4 page report on an interview you have conducted with a health care professional. You will identify an issue from the interview that could be improved with an interdisciplinary approach, and review best practices and evidence to address the issue.
As a baccalaureate-prepared nurse, your participation and leadership in interdisciplinary teams will be vital to the health outcomes for your patients and organization. One way to approach designing an improvement project is to use the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle. The Institute for Healthcare Improvement describes it thus:
The Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle is shorthand for testing a change in the real work setting—by planning it, trying it, observing the results, and acting on what is learned. This is the scientific method adapted for action-oriented learning…Essentially, the PDSA cycle helps you test out change ideas on a smaller scale before evaluating the results and making adjustments before potentially launching into a somewhat larger scale project (n.d.).
You might also recognize that the PDSA cycle resembles the nursing process. The benefit of gaining experience with this model of project design is that it provides nurses with an opportunity to ideate and lead improvements. For this assessment, you will not be implementing all of the PDSA cycle. Instead, you are being asked to interview a health care professional of your choice to determine what kind of interdisciplinary problem he or she is experiencing or has experienced in the workplace. This interview, in Assessment 2, will inform the research that you will conduct to propose a plan for interdisciplinary collaboration in Assessment 3.
It would be an excellent choice to complete the PDSA Cycle activity prior to developing the report. The activity consists of four questions that create the opportunity to check your understanding of best practices related to each stage of the PDSA cycle. The information gained from completing this formative will promote your success with the Interview and Interdisciplinary Issue Identification report. This will take just a few minutes of your time and is not graded.
Institute for Healthcare Improvement. (n.d.). How to improve. http://www.ihi.org/resources/Pages/HowtoImprove/default.aspx
See Also:
Interdisciplinary Plan Proposal NURS-FPX4010
This assessment will introduce the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) Model to create change in an organization. By interviewing a colleague of your choice, you will begin gathering information about an interprofessional collaboration problem that your colleague is experiencing or has experienced. You will identify a change theory and leadership strategies to help solve this problem.
This assessment is the first of three related assessments in which you will gather interview information (Assessment 2); design a proposal for interdisciplinary problem-solving, (Assessment 3); and report on how an interdisciplinary improvement plan could be implemented in a place of practice (Assessment 4). At the end of the course, your interviewee will have a proposal plan based on the PDSA cycle that he or she could present to stakeholders to address an interdisciplinary problem in the workplace.
For this assessment, you will need to interview a health care professional such as a fellow learner, nursing colleague, administrator, business partner, or another appropriate person who could provide you with sufficient information regarding an organizational problem that he or she is experiencing or has experienced, or an area where they are seeking improvements. Consult the Interview Guide [DOCX] for an outline of how to prepare and the types of information you will need to complete this project successfully.
Remember: this is just the first in a series of three assessments.
For this assessment, you will report on the information that you collected in your interview, analyzing the interview data and identifying a past or current issue that would benefit from an interdisciplinary approach. This could be an issue that has not been addressed by an interdisciplinary approach or one that could benefit from improvements related to the interdisciplinary approach currently being used. You will discuss the interview strategy that you used to collect information. Your interview strategy should be supported by citations from the literature.
Additionally, you will start laying the foundation for your Interdisciplinary Plan Proposal (Assessment 3) by researching potential change theories, leadership strategies, and collaboration approaches that could be relevant to issue you have identified. Please be certain to review the scoring guide to confirm specific required elements of this assessment. Note that there are differences between basic, proficient and distinguished scores.
When submitting your plan, use the Interview and Issue Identification Template [DOCX], which will help you to stay organized and concise. As you complete the template, make sure you use APA format for in-text citations for the evidence and best practices that are informing your plan, as well as for the reference list at the end.
Additionally, be sure to address the following, which corresponds to the grading criteria in the scoring guide. Please study the scoring guide carefully so you understand what is needed for a distinguished score.
Interviews are a great way of gathering healthcare data to stimulate change interventions. Nurses are healthcare professionals closest to the patient, thus containing vital information that informs care delivery and changes focus. Well-structured interviews can generate information whose use can change the healthcare facility’s safety and quality of care delivery. This assessment focuses on an interview with a care provider, identifies a care issue at the care provider’s workplace, and describes a change theory that can help address the issue. The assessment will also evaluate a leadership strategy and collaboration strategy to address the issue.
The interview was conducted with Mrs. Judy, a nurse practitioner and the in-charge of the ICU at MedStar Union Hospital. The NP coordinates care delivery and oversees care delivery at the facility. She also does other managerial duties such as scheduling, new staff training, and implementing disciplinary actions in the ward. The NP states that hospital-acquired infections are relatively high, with a rising mortality rate associated with infections. The leading ones include central-line associated bloodstream infections, catheter-acquired urinary tract infections, and surgical site infections. The facility has implemented a risk assessment tool for all these categories that helps identify the patients at risk for infections and manage them accordingly.
The rates have dropped for some time, but the NP is concerned about the high rates of catheter-acquired urinary tract infections despite the organizational efforts to manage them. Other problems include medication errors, and patient falls, which are relatively high in the facility. The NP participated in the interprofessional teams assigned the role of developing the risk assessment tools, which was a great success. She is a member of the professional team concerned with infections in the facility. The organization promotes collaboration and increases the utilization of interdisciplinary collaboration by creating and supporting interprofessional team approaches.
The issue that requires an interdisciplinary approach is catheter-acquired urinary tract infections. CAUTIs are associated with multiple factors, and their prevention entails many interventions delivered in care bundles. An interprofessional team must review healthcare data and perform a gap analysis, determining and implementing corrective action. According to Letica-Kriegel (2019), the risk factors for CAUTI include prolonged catheter use, female gender, catheter care violations, severe disease, diabetes, and immunocompromised.
An interprofessional team is required to ensure correct indications of catheters and management of other risk factors. About 15-25% of the patients are catheterized, meaning that 15-25% are at risk for CAUTIs (Wernburg, 2022). Physicians and nurse practitioners do the prescriptions, while risk assessment requires collaboration from all these professionals. Evidence from studies shows that interdisciplinary collaborative interventions can lead to better patient outcomes and a significant decrease in CAUTIs (Karimi et al., 2019).
The change theory of interest is Kurt Lewin’s change theory. It is simple and easy to implement. The theory focuses on an issue generally and allows the care providers to implement the best-fit intervention for their problem. The first stage, unfreezing, entails mobilizing support for the change by showing the concerned parties the need for change. The second stage entails facilitating the change (such as providing resources required to implement it) and supporting staff to implement it (Saleem et al., 2019).
The theory is generalizable and can be used for organization-wide change, hence its significance in the interdisciplinary approach to CAUTI management. The third stage, refreezing, entails embedding the change into the organizational culture by incorporating it into the organizational policies (Saleem et al., 2019). The theory is widely applied in healthcare, and studies have used it as a framework to guide the implementation of evidence-based interventions and manage change (Iwe, 2022). The sources are current and published by reputable journals, hence the information’s reliability.
The leadership strategies selected are open and effective communication and creating shared goals, objectives, and a strategic vision. Open and effective communication is a motivating factor for professionals to collaborate. Developing goals, objectives, and a strategic vision creates unity of direction as all professionals understand the implications of the change and the desired outcome/end product. Open and effective communication allows professionals to relay information flawlessly, facilitating change activities (Fox et al., 2021). These two strategies can thus support CAUTIs as professionals share information clearly and work towards common goals and objectives of eradicating CAUTIs.
The collaboration approaches of interest are shared decision-making and timely role communication. Role communication eliminates role confusion and promotes role execution by the various members of the healthcare team (Fox et al., 2021). Shared decision-making is an approach that requires the input of professionals, patients, and families in solving healthcare problems. Shared decision-making considers the ideas and perspectives of others in solving problems and making high-quality and reliable decisions. The collaboration approach makes all team members feel significant, stimulating their participation and input.
One of the advantages of the approach is the quality outcomes it produces in care delivery. Michalsen et al. (2019) note that interprofessional teams that share decisions have better outcomes, especially in UCU units, which is the focus of the healthcare issue. The study shows that shared decision-making in interprofessional teams increases information exchange, commitment to change, deliberation, and joint results attainment (Michalsen et al., 2019). The study is a systematic review with a high level of evidence from reputable databases. It was conducted within the last five years, making the data generated reliable.
Catheter-acquired urinary tract infections are the issue of interest from the interview. The interview with the NP showed that interdisciplinary efforts are required to manage the problem. Kurt Lewin’s Change theory is the selected framework that will guide the management of the issue. Open communication, the development and communication of common goals and objectives, shared decision-making, and role communication are the leadership and collaboration strategies that will facilitate interdisciplinary interventions in CAUTI management. Interviews are a great way to identify opportunities for change and address them.
Fox, S., Gaboury, I., Chiocchio, F., & Vachon, B. (2021). Communication and interprofessional collaboration in primary care: from ideal to reality in practice. Health Communication, 36(2), 125-135. https://doi.org/10.1080/10410236.2019.1666499
Iwe, A. I. (2022). Silver Alloy-Coated Urinary Catheters: Preventing Urinary Tract Infection.
Karimi, S., Karimi, S., Kaiser, R., Cobbs, E., Lepcha, N., & Whitehead, S. (2019). Teaming up to Reduce Catheter-Associated Urinary Tract Infections. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, 20(3), B25. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jamda.2019.01.094
Letica-Kriegel, A. S., Salmasian, H., Vawdrey, D. K., Youngerman, B. E., Green, R. A., Furuya, E. Y., Calfee, D., & Perotte, R. (2019). Identifying the risk factors for catheter-associated urinary tract infections: a large cross-sectional study of six hospitals. BMJ Open, 9(2), e022137. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2018-022137
Michalsen, A., Long, A. C., Ganz, F. D., White, D. B., Jensen, H. I., Metaxa, V., Christiane, H., Jos, L., Ribert, T., Jozef, K., Anna, M., & Curtis, J. R. (2019). Interprofessional shared decision-making in the ICU: a systematic review and recommendations from an expert panel. Critical Care Medicine, 47(9), 1258-1266. https://doi.org/10.1097/CCM.0000000000003870
Saleem, S., Sehar, S., Afzal, M., Jamil, A., & Gilani, S. A. (2019). Accreditation: application of Kurt Lewin’s theory on private health care organizational change. Saudi Journal of Nursing and Health Care, 2, 12. https://doi.org/10.36348/sjnhc.2019.v02i12.003
Werneburg, G. T. (2022). Catheter-associated urinary tract infections: current challenges and future prospects. Research and Reports in Urology, 109-133. https://doi.org/10.2147/RRU.S273663
Stakeholder Presentation Sample
Staffing Shortage
Causes of Staffing Shortage
Significance of Interdisciplinary Team Approach
Objectives of Interdisciplinary team Approach
Achievement of Desired outcomes using Interdisciplinary Team
Application of Interdisciplinary Team Approach
Interdisciplinary Plan Summary
Implementation and Resource Management
Implementation and Resource Management… CONT
Evaluation
1.Increased patient outcome (Offermann & Coats, 2018).
2.Improved patient care.
3.Reduced workload to health care providers.
4.Efficiency will be achieved.
For this assessment you will create an 8-12 slide PowerPoint presentation for one or more stakeholder or leadership groups to generate interest and buy-in for the plan proposal you developed for the third assessment. As a current or future nurse leader, you may be called upon to present to stakeholders and leadership about projects that you have been involved in or wish to implement.
The ability to communicate a plan—and potential implications of not pursuing such a plan—to stakeholders effectively can be critically important in creating awareness and buy-in, as well as building your personal and professional brand in your organization. It is equally important that you know how to create compelling presentations for others’ delivery and ensure that they convey the same content you would deliver if you were the presenter.
You are encouraged to complete the Evidence-Based Practice: Basics and Guidelines activity before you develop the presentation. This activity consists of six questions that will create the opportunity to check your understanding of the fundamentals of evidence-based practice as well as ways to identify EBP in practice. The information gained from completing this formative will help promote success in the Stakeholder Presentation and demonstrate courseroom engagement—it requires just a few minutes of your time and is not graded.
This assessment will provide you with an opportunity to sharpen your ability to create a professional presentation to stakeholders. In this presentation, you will explain the Plan-Do-Study-Act cycle and how it can be used to introduce the plan (P), implement the plan (D), study the effectiveness of the plan (S), and act on what is learned (A) to drive continuous improvement. By using this cycle, the stakeholders will have a tool and a proposal to expand on these ideas to drive workplace change and create improved processes to solve an interprofessional collaboration problem.
In addition to summarizing the key points of Assessments 2 and 3, you will provide stakeholders and/or leadership with an overview of project specifics as well as how success would be evaluated—you will essentially be presenting a discussion of the Plan, Do, and Study parts of the PDSA cycle. Again, you will not be expected to execute the project, so you will not have any results to study.
However, by carefully examining the ways in which your plan could be carried out and evaluated, you will get some of the experience of the thinking required for PDSA. When creating your PowerPoint for this assessment, it is important to keep in mind the target audience: your interviewee’s organizational leadership. The overall goal of this assessment is to create a presentation that your interviewee could potentially give in his or her organization.
Please follow the Capella Guidelines for Effective PowerPoint Presentations [PPTX]. If you need technical information on using PowerPoint, refer to Capella University Library: PowerPoint Presentations. 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 you understand what is needed for a distinguished score.
There are various ways to structure your presentation; following is one example:
Again, keep in mind that your audience for this presentation is a specific group (or groups) at your interviewee’s organization and tailor your language and messaging accordingly. Remember, also, that another person will ultimately be giving the presentation. Include thorough speaker’s notes that flesh out the bullet points on each slide.
Portfolio Prompt: Remember to save the final assessment to your ePortfolio so that you may refer to it as you complete the final Capstone course.
Anthony
Refer to the following links to help you get started with Google Sites:
Using Google Sites
It is recommended that you focus on the 3 or 4 most critical categories or themes with respect to your safety improvement initiative pertaining to medication administration. For example
Patient falls are a global healthcare problem that contributes to poor patient outcomes, increased hospital stays, and increased admission rates. According to Keuseman and Miller (2020), an estimated 40% of all hospital accidents are attributed to patient falls.
Furthermore, it is the second most common cause of prolonged hospital stay after adverse drug events and contributes to increased hospital expenditure, therefore becoming a healthcare burden. Consequently, it is prudent for healthcare set-ups to develop evidence-based interventions to reduce falls and limit their adverse effects. Fortunately, root cause analysis (RCA) offers an opportunity to address healthcare issues and come find solutions.
According to Paulsen. (2021), RCA is an evidenced-based tool that uses a systematic approach of incorporating principles, procedures, and methodologies to identify the root cause of the problem and look for solutions to prevent such errors from occurring in the future. While assessing the cause, RCA tries to identify the risks, the steps missed, what could have been done differently, and why the incident occurred.
Therefore, RCA helps optimize care and improve patient outcomes when used in healthcare. Regarding patient falls, this paper will discuss the root cause analysis, evidenced-based practices, safety improvement plans, and existing organizational resources to prevent falls and improve patient safety.
Root cause analysis uses a systematic approach. The initial step of RCA is problem identification and multidisciplinary team members are concerned with the problem. Patient falls are a healthcare concern with several contributions classified as internal or external causes.
Interna causes are those related to patient factors. Such include increasing age above 65 years, visual impairment, urinary incontinence, dizziness, delirium, certain medications, and previous history of falls. According to Keuseman and Miller (2020), fall risks increase in elderly patients taking medications such as benzodiazepines, psychotropics, and sedatives. These medications cause drowsiness, agitation, confusion, and anxiety, which increases the risk of falls in elderly patients who are essentially unstable or have gait disturbances.
Conversely, extrinsic factors are related to the environmental risks that cause falls. They include poor lighting systems, overcrowding, slippery floors, negligence by healthcare providers, absence of cradles, poor communication, nursing shortage, lack of fall response system, and lack of support from relatives. Furthermore, LeLaurin and Shorr (2019) argue that despite bedside bells being useful in preventing falls, they may contribute to falls.
They state that inappropriate use of bells could lead to agitation, anxiety, confusion, and an increased risk of falls. Therefore, patients and relatives must be educated before using it; otherwise, serious falls may be reported. Nonetheless, the failure of healthcare providers to identify at-risk populations also increases the risk of falls among hospitalized patients. Consequently, patient falls negatively affect patient outcomes.
For instance, patient falls contribute to fractures, dislocation, a complication of other chronic conditions, and other injuries. Therefore, it leads to increased hospitalization, which leads to increased hospital expenditures. Furthermore, patient satisfaction is compromised, making them seek legal options for compensation in case of negligence. Therefore, it is prudent to implementation of interventions aimed at reducing falls.
Several levels of evidence-based practice have been deployed in various set-ups to prevent patient falls. One of the most common causes of patient falls is due to negligence. Therefore, my institution has been at the forefront of offering education to healthcare providers about their roles and how they can prevent falls.
The education aims at enlightening caregivers about the risks, prevention strategies, and complications of falls. The use of a risk assessment tool for all patients is the easiest and safest way of classifying patients (Stoeckle et al., 2019). For those at high risk, extra activities are performed. These include hourly rounding, close monitoring, placing them in safe beds, offering bracelets, and training caregivers. Furthermore, prompt medication analysis should be done to eliminate sedative medications from high-risk patients.
Moreover, other interventions applicable to reducing falls involve addressing environmental factors. Such include improving lighting, avoiding slippery floors, addressing nursing shortages, improving communication strategies, and implementing protocols for fall prevention.
According to Francis-Coad et al. (2020), an increasing number of healthcare providers will reduce workload and burnout, thus improving the patient environment while eliminating risks and leading to increased patient safety. Furthermore, patients should be educated about the importance of effective communication with healthcare providers and relatives before leaving their beds.
Incorporation of the patient safety improvement corps (PSIC) is the safest method that has been used in various healthcare settings to reduce patient falls. PSIC is a nationwide program in the US for training healthcare providers in safety techniques (LeLaurin & Shorr, 2019). It aims at improving the knowledge and skills of healthcare providers about their safety and that of their patients. Regarding patient falls, PSIC encourages the use of risk assessment tools and post-fall assessment tools. The goal of PSIC is to ensure a reduction in falls in a specific setup and initiate mass education of all healthcare providers about safety techniques.
The risk assessment tools have several questions that help screen all patients as they are admitted. This ensures that high-risk patients are identified while safety steps are implanted to reduce falls. On the other hand, the post-fall assessment tool helps identify both intrinsic and extrinsic factors that may have contributed to falls (Francis-Coad et al., 2020).
Once identified, safety measures are put in place to address the risks to prevent future occurrences of falls. Therefore, all healthcare providers should be equipped with PSIC training to improve patient safety NURS-FPX4020 Assessment 2 Root-Cause Analysis and Safety Improvement Plan..
Falls prevention is a significant healthcare issue requiring various stakeholders’ input while incorporating various resources. As stated earlier, the PSIC program aims at offering training to improve safety. However, there is a need for team members to implement PSIC training to enhance safety NURS-FPX4020 Assessment 2 Root-Cause Analysis and Safety Improvement Plan.
Therefore, all healthcare providers, including nurses, doctors, therapists, and pharmacists, among others, should be included in the training. After acquiring skills, these members can then train others, including security personnel, patients, and relatives, about safe practices to prevent patient falls (Stoeckle et al., 2019). Finally, resources, including brochures, cards, and papers containing safety measures, can be distributed to patients, insurance companies, relatives, and other healthcare providers to improve knowledge.
Despite patient falls being a healthcare problem resulting in adverse patient outcomes, root causes analysis offers a systematic approach to reducing falls. RCA identifies the cause of a problem and comes up with a solution to prevent future occurrences. NURS-FPX4020 Assessment 2 Root-Cause Analysis and Safety Improvement Plan.
Known causes of patient falls include impaired vision, negligence by nurses, sedating medications, gait disturbances, slippery floors, and poor lighting. Therefore, RCA helps investigate the root cause deeply and find solutions. The commonly applied solutions to prevent falls are educating healthcare providers about safety techniques and improving the working environment.
Francis-Coad, J., Hill, A.-M., Jacques, A., Chandler, A. M., Richey, P. A., Mion, L. C., & Shorr, R. I. (2020). Association between characteristics of injurious falls and fall preventive interventions in acute medical and surgical units. The Journals of Gerontology. Series A, Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, 75(10), e152–e158. https://doi.org/10.1093/gerona/glaa032
Keuseman, R., & Miller, D. (2020). A hospitalist’s role in preventing patient falls. Hospital Practice (1995), 48(sup1), 63–67. https://doi.org/10.1080/21548331.2020.1724473
LeLaurin, J. H., & Shorr, R. I. (2019). Preventing falls in hospitalized patients: State of the science. Clinics in Geriatric Medicine, 35(2), 273–283. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cger.2019.01.007
Paulsen, M. (2021). Root cause analysis. JAMA: The Journal of the American Medical Association, 325(3), 225–226. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2020.24911
Stoeckle, A., Iseler, J. I., Havey, R., & Aebersold, C. (2019). Catching quality before it falls: Preventing falls and injuries in the adult emergency department. Journal of Emergency Nursing: JEN: Official Publication of the Emergency Department Nurses Association, 45(3), 257–264. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jen.2018.08.001
For this assessment, you will use a supplied template to conduct a root-cause analysis of a quality or safety issue in a health care setting of your choice and outline a plan to address the issue.
As patient safety concerns continue to be addressed in the health care settings, nurses can play an active role in implementing safety improvement measures and plans.
Often root-cause analyses are conducted and safety improvement plans are created to address sentinel or adverse events such as medication errors, patient falls, wrong-site surgery events, and hospital-acquired infections.
Performing a root-cause analysis offers a systematic approach for identifying causes of problems, including process and system-check failures.
Once the causes of failures have been determined, a safety improvement plan can be developed to prevent recurrences. The baccalaureate nurse’s role as a leader is to create safety improvement plans as well as disseminate vital information to staff nurses and other health care professionals to protect patients and improve outcomes.
As you prepare for this assessment, it would be an excellent choice to complete the Quality and Safety Improvement Plan Knowledge Base activity and to review the various assessment resources, all of which will help you build your knowledge of key concepts and terms related to quality and safety improvement. The terms and concepts will be helpful as you prepare your Root-Cause Analysis and Safety Improvement Plan. Activities are not graded and demonstrate course engagement.
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:
Nursing practice is governed by health care policies and procedures as well as state and national regulations developed to prevent problems. It is critical for nurses to participate in gathering and analyzing data to determine causes of patient safety issues, in solving problems, and in implementing quality improvements.
For this assessment, you may choose from the following options as the subject of a root-cause analysis and safety improvement plan:
The purpose of this assessment is to demonstrate your understanding of and ability to analyze a root cause of a specific safety concern in a health care setting.
You will create a plan to improve the safety of patients related to the concern based on the results of your analysis, using the literature and professional best practices as well as the existing resources at your chosen health care setting to provide a rationale for your plan.
Use the Root-Cause Analysis and Improvement Plan Template [DOCX] to help you to stay organized and concise. This will guide you step-by-step through the root cause analysis process. Additionally, 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 you understand what is needed for a distinguished score.
Example Assessment: You may use the following to give you an idea of what a Proficient or higher rating on the scoring guide would look like:
Also Read:
NURSFPX4020 Capella University Safety Improvement Plan Analysis Paper
Note: Your instructor may also use the Writing Feedback Tool to provide feedback on your writing. In the tool, click the linked resources for helpful writing information.
Portfolio Prompt: Remember to save the final assessment to your ePortfolio so that you may refer to it as you complete the final Capstone course.
Root-cause analysis is used to point out the causes of adverse occurrences or explore options to prevent them from happening again. The root-cause analysis focused on medication errors and was performed in a nursing home facility following death of a resident patient due to wrongful discontinuation of the medication. This paper explores medication errors and looks at evidence-based and best practices methods to reduce medication errors. Further, the paper suggests a safety improvement plan with a basis on the use of available resources to address the problem.
The root-cause, in this case, was instigated by the untimely death of an 80-year-old at a nursing home. Angie broke her right; she was taken to the hospital and, after an ORIF was done, transferred back to the nursing home. Angie had been given new medications and ordered to continue taken her previous prescriptions as she had a known history of congestive failure that had lately presented with frequent exacerbations.
Having two medication administration forms in her file contributed to the error. The nurse administering the drug was also distracted by a phone call, signaled a colleague who unintentionally interpreted the indication of Lasix on the new MAR as duplication, and yellowed it out. The medication continued without administration of Lasix.
Consequently, presumed to have been discontinued, Lasix was removed from the cart and sent back to the pharmacy. Days later, Angie’s condition worsened, and resuscitation efforts proved futile. She went into a cardiac arrest and passed on. The sudden death of a patient who had recently responded to treatment affected the nurse in charge, who sought to probe the matter. The event also affected all the nurses at the home, the administration, and the physician who attended to Angie at the hospital.
The medication process has standard laid out procedures. In Angie’s case, the attending nurse should have pursued the yellowing of Lasix to ascertain the reason. The attending should not have removed the old Medication Administration Record from the patient’s file. Maintaining the said record in the patient’s file would have allowed drug reconfirmation when during the next round of administration. Given the history of Congestive Cardiac failure, the discontinuation of Lasix should have raised eyebrows, prompting further investigation into the reason behind such a decision.
Noteworthy is that the environmental factors that contributed to the sad occurrence were controllable. The distraction brought about by the phone call was too huge and the epicenter of the mistake. All stakeholders should have harmonized administration of medication. The communication was appropriate all through save for handing the file midway when picking the call. Therefore, the root causes for the grievous error were modifiable environmental distractions, failure to adhere to standard administration protocols, and modifiable environmental factors.
All nurses are vulnerable to committing medication errors. Workplace interruptions tend to increase the risk for medication errors, with Johnson et al. (2017) reporting that up to 99% of medication preparation or administration are interrupted. In this case, the interruption was the phone call, which caused the attending nurse to lose focus on patient needs and medications. A chaotic work environment can be detrimental to the results of nursing care. According to Johnson et al. (2017), the cost of medication errors remains high, and include lengthened hospital stay, lifetime physical injuries, increased cost of care, and in some cases, death of the patient.
For this reason, there is need for healthcare institutions to effectively leverage existing human resources to ensure full employer participation in improvement activities, staff training and promotion of smooth communication between the different stakeholders. Such initiatives can make it easier for facilities to handle challenges and barriers in patient care. Further, administrators should highlight the importance of complete and comprehensive patient documentation to minimize errors of omission.
The improvement plan for sustained patient within the facility will focus on three pertinent facets, namely improved communication between nurses and other stakeholders, enhanced collaboration, and elimination of detractors from the work environment, such as cell phones. The first step of this improvement plan entails improving communication between stakeholders to enhance awareness during the provision of care. Collaborative working ensures that nurses and physicians can verify patient information prior to making any changes pertaining to patient care. Further, the plan suggests team empowerment, especially with respect to policy execution, for better patient management (Zamboni, et al., 2020).
Environmental adjustment by creating a telephone station to leave one’s contacts during the administration of medication is equally essential. Nurses should be advised not to use individual cell phones during shifts to minimize cases of distractions. With effective implementation, this plan can help improve the quality of services offered, in addition to minimizing the chances of human errors within the facility. The plan is time-bound, and analysis of progress should commence in two months to review its success or the need for adjustments.
It is paramount to identify and apply the available resources appropriately. The facility has enough resources that when employed efficiently, can result in a safe nursing home environment. Foremost, the facility has enough, well-trained nurses to handle the residents of the home. By efficiently applying their skills, knowledge and workplace exposure, the nurses are in a better position to provide safe care (Franks, 2020).
Secondly, the facility has schedules for physician visits every week to ensure that patients receive the intended medical care. Finally, the facility’s human resource management team must ensure that nurses handle patients with minimum interruptions by creating well-defined schedules. Additionally, the management should make it a routine for the head nurse to check and approve all transfers and medication changes for patients within two hours of such change.
Arguably, medication errors are the leading cause of injury, death and increased healthcare costs within nursing homes. The root cause analysis of the causative factors explored in this paper reveal the causes and potential solutions to the issue of medication errors in nursing homes. As observed in the case discussed, nurse distraction occasioned by cell phone use during work hours resulted in the death of a patient, an occurrence that should not happen. This paper has reviewed in-depth evidence-based strategies needed to effectively address the problem, particularly by focusing on human and environment factors that tend to jeopardize service delivery.
!!!Please click the link above for video instructions!!!
For this assessment, you will develop an 8-14 slide PowerPoint presentation with thorough speaker’s notes designed for a hypothetical in-service session related to the safe medication administration improvement plan you developed in A