Culture of safety

1.Culture of safety – sounds so simple and exactly where we should be as nurses, but are we? How can data provide information to evaluate quality patient outcomes? Give an example of data that can reflect poor quality in care. How can quality improvement be a daily task in patient care? Why does continuous quality improvement need to be associated with change?

2.Explore the website for the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) initiative

3.After reviewing the Institute of Medicine (IOM) website (www.iom.edu), describe the IOM report framework for healthcare quality. How can it be applied to nursing? How can it be applied to your actual work setting? ( I work in the child Psych setting).

4.Search the American Nurses Association (ANAand select a publication on workplace safety. Review the document (publication), include the URL, and discuss implications for you and your work setting. (I am a nurse working in child Psych.)

5.What are the major issues related to the National Patient Safety Goals? Choose one area that applies to your practice or area of interest, and describe how EBP could help you meet the goals for patient safety.

6.Perform a web search and find information that allows you to discuss the following topic: What role does leadership play in improving care? How does this relate to nursing as a profession as well as to an individual nurse? How are nurses prepared to be leaders? How does the nurse utilize clinical judgment in providing patient-centered care?

Nursing Coursework

1. As much as the culture of safety sounds so simple, we are not yet there as nurses, but several steps are being developed to ensure that we get there soon. Data provides information to evaluate patient outcomes by the use of Electronic Health Records (EHR). It carefully analyzes and tracks a patient’s medical history thus can be used for evaluation of quality patient outcomes. Poor quality of care can be reflected by constant readmissions of a patient, for example, due to either inadequate care of the causative disease or partial treatment. Quality improvement can be a daily task in patient care is all nurses took it upon themselves to do their best. Continuous quality improvement is associated with change since there is a reduction in casualties, resulting in high quality healthcare (Npsf.org, 2014). 
2. The issue of competence is fast becoming important in the nursing professions as employers seek to employ competent nurses. As such, these competencies need to be employed in the workplace to ensure that all the nurses are ‘up to date’. The use of periodic examinations and renewable licenses can be used in the workplace to ensure competence (Qsen.org. (2014). 
3. The IOM framework for healthcare quality describes the need for high quality in medical care provision by having a patient oriented approach. It can be applied to nursing since nurses are the primary care givers to the patients. Therefore, for this suggested framework to succeed, nurses must be at the forefront of its implementation. It can be applied in the child psych setting since these children need a lot of attention for instance, in ensuring their well-being while in the hospital (Iom.edu, 2014). 
4. The article was obtained from; http://www.npsf.org/about-us/lucian-leape-institute-at-npsf/lli-reports-and-statements/eyes-of-the-workforce/. It is a detailed study on the importance of safety in the workforce and primarily the role that nurses play in patient safety. Quality healthcare and wellbeing are directly linked to the working conditions that nurses have. For instance in a good working environment, they observe all the rules required and as such offer better services than those in stressful environments. In my case as a nurse in the child psych department, this is entirely true since having several children to care for, all with different needs can get overwhelming. Working for long hours, for example, greatly reduces the quality of healthcare offered to these patients (Hughes, 2008).
5. The National Patient Safety Goals focus on the improvement of safety for patients through better training and the adaptation of new working practices for the caregivers in the hospitals. The greatest impediment to recommended patient safety has been noted to be due to a number of things most notably the nurses’ roles. One area that relates to my area of interest that is child psychology is Behavioral Healthcare. Its provisions will help me reach the required goals since it suggests that the nurses identify the individual needs of their patients instead of considering the group dynamic. This is imperative, as it ensures all patients are comfortable and aids in their recovery as well (BHC_NPSG, 2014).
6. Leadership plays a great role in improving care as seen by the formation of nursing associations such as American Nurses Associations. This is because these organizations are able to identify the problems facing the nurses and come up with suggestions to alleviate them, which benefit an individual both on a professional and personal level. Nurses re prepared to be leaders throughout their education, for instance, when they are trained in crisis management like in emergencies. Nurses utilize clinical judgment in patient centered care by making decisions based on the needs of an individual patient such as dose regimens (Nursingworld.org, 2014).
7. The Affordable Care Act has several benefits, one of which is the ability of people from all walks of life to gain access to good health care. It is important to be aware of changes in healthcare policy because these policies influence the nursing profession. Any changes made in healthcare have a direct co-relation and to ensure that high quality medical care is provided, they have to be taken into consideration (Nursingworld.org, 2014). 

References

Hughes, R. (2008). Patient safety and quality. Rockville, MD: Agency For Healthcare Research And Quality, U.S. Dept. Of Health And Human Services.

BHC_NPSG (2014).

Nursingworld.org. (2014).