Enhancing Quality and Safety in Healthcare
Required:
For this assessment, you will develop a 3-5 page paper that examines a safety quality issue in a
health care setting. You will analyze the issue and examine potential evidence-based and bestpractice 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.
You are encouraged to complete the Identifying Safety Risks and Solutions activity. This activity
offers an opportunity to review a case study and practice identifying safety risks and possible
solutions. We have found that learners who complete course activities and review resources are
more successful with first submissions. Completing course activities is also a way to demonstrate
course engagement. You may also choose to use the scenario in the activity as the basis for
your assessment.
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 related to a specific
patient safety risk and reduce costs.
Competency 2: Analyze factors that lead to patient safety risks.
Explain factors leading to a specific patient safety risk.
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 and reduce costs.
Identify stakeholders with whom nurses would need to coordinate to drive quality and safety
enhancements.
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-medicalmistakes-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 the hospital-acquired conditions that are not reimbursed under Medicare/Medicaid,
some of which are specific safety issues such as infections, falls, medication errors, and other
concerns that could have been prevented or alleviated with the use of evidence-based
guidelines.
Choose a specific condition of interest and incorporate evidence-based strategies to support
communication and ensure safe and effective care.
For this assessment, consider using one of the following approaches:
Expand on the scenario presented in Vila Health: Identifying Patient Safety Concerns and
analyze a quality improvement (QI) initiative.
Analyze a current issue in clinical practice 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 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, 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 evidencebased strategies to enhance quality of care and promote 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.
Explain evidence-based and best-practice solutions to improve patient safety related to a specific
patient-safety risk and reduce costs.
Explain how nurses can help coordinate care to increase patient safety and reduce costs.
Identify stakeholders with whom nurses would coordinate to drive safety enhancements.
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.
