Nursing Theory
Identify one quality improvement strategy to improve health. How could you apply it to your current nursing practice? How does the assimilation of quality improvement strategies enhance leadership?
Please use information presentation as one of the references
Must use Emergency Department for any clinical practice reference/example
ORDER A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE !!
Solution
Quality Improvement
Quality Improvement entails applying a continuous, consistent approach in improving the healthcare system (Backhouse & Ogunlayi,2020). The strategies implemented must lead to quality care, improve patient outcomes, improve health services and delivery and solve various health problems. Therefore, it entails several techniques that are applied in reducing mortality and morbidity rates. This study discusses a quality improvement strategy that can improve health, its application in nursing practice and enhancement to leadership.
Quality Improvement strategy
Hand washing is a quality improvement strategy that theorist Florence Nightingale also used to reduce infections caused by unhygienic environments, especially in healthcare organizations (McEwen & Wills,2014). Healthcare-associated infections are the most prevalent cause of morbidity and mortality globally. For instance, in the United States, an approximation of 1.7 million people develops healthcare-associated infections yearly (Haque et al.,2020). Thus, it remains a threat to the health system, especially in long term care facilities, where patients have to stay at the health facility for rehabilitation purposes.
Application of handwashing in current practice
This strategy is essential in my current nursing practice because currently there are prevalent infections within healthcare organizations. Currently, we are dealing with the COVID-19 virus that requires proper hygiene measures, such as washing hands frequently. Therefore, I will advocate the handwashing strategy among my colleagues by putting a notice on each department door written ‘kindly wash your hands with a medically proven soap’ with a diagram illustrating how to wash hands. One nurse will volunteer in guiding the patients who come in and leave the facility by washing hands and strictly observing the surfaces they touch.
Quality improvement in leadership
Leaders’ participation is crucial in quality improvement strategy to enhance quality care. (McEwen & Wills,2014). Therefore, it is implemented as a team and not individually. The main purpose is to ensure that communication is passed to all those involved to enhance health improvement. Quality improvement enables individuals to take different tasks and work as a team in achieving the goal. Therefore, every individual is responsible for managing and facilitating the quality outcome. In the end, everyone is actively involved in the decision making and implementation processes.
References
Backhouse, A., & Ogunlayi, F. (2020). Quality improvement into practice. BMJ, 368.https://www.bmj.com/content/368/bmj.m865
Haque, M., McKimm, J., Sartelli, M., Dhingra, S., Labricciosa, F. M., Islam, S., … & Charan, J. (2020). Strategies to prevent healthcare-associated infections: a narrative overview. Risk management and healthcare policy, 13, 1765.https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7532064/
McEwen, M., & Wills, E. M. (2014). Theoretical basis for nursing. Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. https://zu.edu.jo/UploadFile/Library/E_Books/Files/LibraryFile_171030_28.pdf