Quality improvement refers to the process aimed at improving the overall performance of the health care sector. A continuous process aims at attaining quality improvement in the provision of health care services that suit the specific needs of the patients. The paper discusses the activities involved in the quality improvement, the roles of professional nurses in the activities, factors affecting nursing participation as well as strategies that can be used to improve the overall care.
Different health practices have an established strategic plan for carrying out the improvements that are considered essential in the clinical setup. The quality improvement activities can be classified in various forms such as changes in the daily activities of practice. The day-to-day activities that may need improvement may include the normal opening hours, changing the way patients’ complaints are handled, proper scheduling of appointments and improving health records keeping. Additionally, the practices may change the system to avoid future complications in the scheduling of appointments. Other quality improvements by the health care include activities aimed at improving the care for the entire patient population in the clinics (Draper et al., 2008). Such activities may include improving the immunization rates as well as improving care for patients with long-term conditions such as diabetes and hypertension. It also includes changing the systems to make them effective in measuring the risk of prevalence of certain conditions among the people living in the community. As such, the clinics undertake internal assessments of the handover processes through examining the referral recipients to determine whether the processes are satisfactory and effective among the people or not.
As the hospitals continue to face a demand for quality improvement, the roles of the nurses have also evolved. The roles of the nurses are identified in researches done by the center for studying health systems change (McHugh & Stimpfel, 2012). Nurses are pivotal in ensuring that health care improvement has been attained. Therefore, as the hospitals engage in a wide range of quality improvement activities, they heavily rely on the nurses to assist in addressing the demands. Professional nurses have the responsibility of providing the hospital with the right information on how the organization can maximize the resources to improve patient care quality.
Various factors or challenges limit the nurses’ involvement in the health care quality improvement. Such factors include the scarcity of nurses that forces the hospital to hire part-time staffs (Kuehn, 2007). Engaging nurses from the bedside activities to managerial roles sometimes confuses or sends mixed messages on their roles in the quality improvement process (Draper et al., 2008). It limits their abilities to be engaged in other activities of the organization that are considered essential for quality improvement. The demands for more participation in activities that promote quality improvement is growing. Lastly, the challenges associated with confronting the old nursing education may not prepare nurses for future developing roles in the modern-day clinical settings.
Quality improvement requires the establishment of a supportive leadership that is active and engages all the stakeholders of the organization. A strong leadership supports the activities of quality improvement since it makes the decisions for the organization. It is also necessary to set up expectations for all the staffs since quality improvement is a shared responsibility thereby implying that all staffs should be allowed to participate in IQ. Encouraging individual responsibilities equips an employee with skills that help in the promotion of accountability for patient safety and quality (Kuehn, 2007). The hospital will need to provide a two-way feedback mechanism that will help the organization to obtain the required information. Obtaining feedback is essential for the firm since it allows the management to make good decisions for further improvement based on the feedback obtained from various stakeholders from the community or local levels. Various methods such as staff training, newsletters, electronic communication and staff meetings can be used to provide quality improvement feedbacks. During the assignment of duties or recruitment, it is necessary to choose the best candidates, who can create accountable staffs (Draper et al., 2008). Promoting as well as identifying nurses and other physicians empowers their efforts in the improvement of health care. As such, the employees to champion and engage in activities or incentives aimed at improving the quality of care.
The issue of health care quality improvement has become a national agenda to improve the sector. However, the increased demand has come when the economic settings have resulted in reduced resources thereby limiting the attainment of the objectives (McHugh & Stimpfel, 2012). Quality improvement requires a firm to engage in activities that contribute to the overall improvement. However, various factors limit the success thereby demonstrating the need to establish a working plan or strategies that will help in the improvement of quality.
References
McHugh, M. D., & Stimpfel, A. W. (2012). Nurse reported quality of care: a measure of hospital quality. Research in nursing & health, 35(6), 566-575.
Draper, D. A., Felland, L. E., Liebhaber, A., & Melichar, L. (2008). The role of nurses in hospital quality improvement. Research brief, (3), 1-8.
Kuehn, B. M. (2007). No end in sight to nursing shortage. JAMA, 298(14), 1623-1625.
