Week 1: Foundations of Quality and Patient Safety in Healthcare
You are a DNP-prepared nurse working in the ICU of your local hospital. A patient is struggling with balance, and you indicate this patient is a “fall risk” in your charts. However, after a long night, caring for many patients, you forget to indicate this risk on the patient’s door, which is procedure at the hospital. You complete your shift and go home for the night.
The scenario presented highlights how easy it is for an error to occur in healthcare. Humans are prone to error, and DNP-prepared nurses are no exception; however, certain policies and procedures can be enacted to improve patient safety and minimize errors.
Almost all occupational fields rely on safety and quality practices to ensure employees, customers, etc., are in a safe environment. These quality and safety practices help organizations to limit errors and improve performance; the field of nursing is no different. It is important for the nurse leader to recognize that quality and safety measures help to improve patient safety by installing processes and workflows into nursing practice that may result in fewer errors.
This week, you will examine foundations of quality improvement in healthcare, as well as explore patient safety. You will also review your experience with these practices and consider your role as a future DNP-prepared nurse.
Learning Objectives
Students will:
- Analyze quality and safety for nursing practice
- Analyze quality and safety for healthcare delivery
- Analyze the role of the DNP-prepared nurse as a function of quality and safety
- Analyze the concept of just culture in healthcare organizations
- Analyze how a just culture impacts healthcare organizations
- Analyze the role of the DNP-prepared nurse in supporting environments for just culture in healthcare organizations
Learning Resources
Required Readings (click to expand/reduce)
Discussion 1: Quality and Safety in Healthcare and Nursing Practice
- How will you, as a future DNP-prepared nurse, keep patients safe? This is a multi-layered question with many different answers. Yet, it is important to note that as the nurse leader, quality and safety measures are at the forefront of how you deliver nursing practice.
Quality and safety measures are integral components in healthcare. According to Nash et al. (2019), “Around the end of the twentieth century and the start of the twenty-first, a number of reports presented strong evidence of widespread quality deficiencies and highlighted a need for substantial change to ensure high-quality care for all patients” (p. 5). Understanding the prominence of error, it is important to consider your role as a DNP-prepared nurse.
For this Discussion, take a moment to consider your experience with quality and safety in your nursing practice. Reflect on your experience and consider how your role may support quality and safety measures.
Reference:
Nash, D. B., Joshi, M. S., Ransom, E. R., & Ransom, S. B. (Eds.). (2019). The healthcare quality book: Vision, strategy, and tools (4th ed.). Health Administration Press.
To Prepare:
- Review the Learning Resources for this week.
- Reflect on your experience with nursing practice, specifically as it relates to the function of quality and safety. For example, consider whether your current organization supports quality and safety. How might your role help to support these measures in your organization or nursing practice?
By Day 3 of Week 1
Post a brief description of any previous experience with quality and safety. Then, explain how your role as the DNP-prepared nurse represents a function of quality and safety for nursing practice and healthcare delivery. Be specific and provide examples.
By Day 5 of Week 1
Read a selection of your colleagues’ responses and respond to at least two of your colleagues on two different days by expanding upon your colleague’s post or suggesting an additional alternative perspective on quality and safety.
