Quality Nursing Care (i) Table of contents PAGE 1.
Introduction 1 2. Definition / Explanation of quality care 1 3. The Elements of quality care 1 4. Quality assurance and risk management 1-2 5.
The value of quality improvement cycle 2 6.The type of audit that should be performed to identify gaps in 3 quality care nursing care 7. Conclusion 3 1 Introduction In this essay the quality of care in a hospital setting, will view of the most critical contributions of nursing to patient safety in a hospital setting. There are many concerns about the quality of care rendered by nursing staff and their treatment of patients.
Definition Quality of care is effective and efficient services that are rendered to patients in the health care field. Quality can be in the form of patient safety, patient satisfaction and patient assurance.Quality of care includes training of health care personnel, improving delivery system processes, and attention to systemic level factors such as technology and medical records. Patient safety in health care is making sure that products are clean, safe to use and staff are using them correctly. Elements of Quality Care The elements of quality care consist of the following areas; accessibility, appropriateness, effectiveness, efficiency, and equity. Accessibility, family and the patient should be provided the necessary information that involved his or her treatment.
In the behavioral model we have learned that people's use of healthcare is a function of their predisposition to use services, the factors enabling or impeding use, and their need for care. Healthcare institutions and provides must respect dignity, provide culturally appropriate care, be responsive to diverse needs, follow medical ethics and patient’s rights. All health care must be medically appropriate and of good quality, guided by quality standards and control mechanics and provided in a timely, continuous, safe, and patient-centered manner.A health care system much ensure that recourses, including health facilities, goods, services ,are equitably and fairly distributed and provided correct treatment of patient care. In this case appropriate diet, intravenous fluids to prevent dehydration, special investigation is recommended.
Quality assurance and risk management Today we are moving in a new direction when it comes to improving the quality of health care. We are now evaluating the effectiveness of health care organizations, from two stand points, quality and cost.The health care executives and nursing administrators are both ensuring that their organizations are recognized as healthy and adaptable institutions. To achieve this, they 2 must have a successful quality management system. The leadership must equip the staff with the tools of success, the knowledge they need and use of strategic planning, in the management of human resources, and the knowledge of customer expectations. A quality management system of this kind demands a broad assessment of the organization, including all employees.
It also requires quality assurance.During the controlling phase of the management process, standards are set, performance is measured, and action is taken to correct discrepancies between standards and actual performance. The health care risk management professional must maintain professional integrity at all times by avoiding conduct which results in unjust harm to others. In this scenario a sentinel event occur and a root analysis needs to be conducted to prevent similar incidents. In this scenario management needs to take a strong stand in improving the care of its patients.Training needs to be conducted and adhered to by the staff.
When an organization has staff members blatantly ignoring its patients with vomit caked on her clothing, bedding and hair, there is definitely a problem within the system. The husband received a phone call warning him of the treatment his wife was receiving; at that point he should have started inquiring about such treatment. Allegations of the treatment rendered should have been directed to a higher level of authority, in which case it wasn’t. The value of quality improvement cycleAccording to Deming, variations should measure in a process in order to pin point the courses of poor quality.
Quality improves as variability decreases. It includes processes for effective communication and monitoring; a defined level of commitment required of health and disability advocates; established processes for the linguistic and cultural challenges that include recognition of cultural and ethnic values; strategies that provide relevant, accurate, and timely information that maximize the value and benefits of the service being provided.This will be achieved through the implementation of continuous quality improvement systems, the basis of which is the simple quality improvement cycle. If the PDCA cycle was used properly, the proper treatment for the patient would have been better.
The plan, do, check and act system was not properly implemented. 3 Patient safety is the cornerstone of high-quality health care. Much of the work defining patient safety and practices that prevent harm have focused on negative outcomes of care, such as mortality and morbidity.Nurses are critical to the surveillance and coordination that reduce such adverse outcomes. Much work remains to be done in evaluating the impact of nursing care on positive quality indicators, such as appropriate self-care and other measures of improved health status.
Nursing Audit Is the processes of analyzing data about the patient’s outcome; the evaluation of effective nurse’s interventions. Process and structure audits are the most commonly used. In the case of this scenario the outcome audit would be used, due to the treatment of this patient.The tragic outcome of this patients care was drastic. In this case we definitely want to measure the quality of hospital care . Patient safety and practices that prevent harm have focus on negative outcomes of care, such as mortality and morbidity.
Nurses are critical to the surveillance and coordination that reduce such adverse outcomes. Conclusion Taking control of risk lies squarely within the obligation of ethical conduct for nurses to provide high quality nursing care to society and to the individual patient.Using moral principles and virtues as a foundation for professional judgment and moral decisions making promotes high quality nursing care and maintains professional and moral integrity while managing risk encourages trust between society and profession. References: Booyens, SW {ed).
2008. Introduction to health services management. 3rd edition. Cape Town: Juta.
Roussel, L. (ed). 2009. Management and leadership for nurse administrators.
5th edition. Boston: Jones and Bartlett. University of South Africa. Department of Health Sciences
