Inpatient Fall Prevention Programs as a Patient Safety Strategy, Essay Example

Healthcare quality is best represented by a national emphasis on consistency in care and treatment that has a significant impact on outcomes. It is important for nurses to focus on these objectives and to recognize that a number of key variables play a role in achieving quality care. Most notably, patient perceptions of healthcare care particularly significant because they establish a tone of excellence that has lasting impact on how care is achieved in the workplace environment (Rademakers et.al, 2011). Therefore, improvements in quality of care must be related to the ability of patients to provide adequate feedback and to be represented as part of a larger framework for nurses to move towards improving patient safety (Rademakers et.al, 2011). This information is relevant because it captures the need for patient input to be taken seriously and to impact how nurses perform their roles in the workplace setting (Rademakers et.al, 2011).

Quality improvement must be evaluated as a large-scale series of events that aims to capture the attention of patients and key stakeholders in order to achieve the desired objectives (Perla et.al, 2013). In this context, healthcare providers must be able to demonstrate their ability to work proactively towards meeting patient goals and to promote recovery in a balanced fashion that also emphasizes other elements that impact patient care quality and safety (Perla et.al, 2013). A greater emphasis must be placed on patient-based objectives that support the needs of patients above all else, including personal and professional objectives that may override the needs that patients have. From this perspective, nurses must be able to provide a level of support and guidance to their patients that goes above and beyond the basics and that will encourage the growth and development of improvements in patient safety and quality that will contribute to effective results and improved quality of life for the patient population and its overall needs across different population groups.

Nurse-sensitive indicators of quality include a number of important measures that impact many areas of direct patient care, such as patient falls and urinary catheter-associated urinary tract infection (UTI), both of which require nurses to exercise sound knowledge and technique in order to prevent unnecessary risk and harm to patients. In this context, quality improvement strategies must demonstrate a high level of support and the recognition of prevention efforts that will positively impact patient care in order to minimize risks associated with these indicators (Miake-Lye et.al, 2013). These factors require nurses to recognize their responsibility to ensure that patient care quality is optimized and to be proactive in the identification of theoretical perspectives that may positively impact the patient care environment to facilitate effective results (Miake-Lye et.al, 2013).

Nurses must also identify areas where they are able to conduct interventions to promote improvements in quality of care to prevent UTIs that are a direct result of catheter placements (Fink et.al, 2012). From this perspective, patient care quality must be a primary focus of all nurses working with patients who require catheters, as this reflects the value of strategies, techniques, and attention towards catheter placement, hygiene, and other factors that may impact the potential risk of infection in some patients (Fink et.al, 2012). Therefore, these issues must be considered as part of a strategy that encompasses new ideas and approaches to facilitate improvements in the prevention of these infections (Fink et.al, 2012). Nurses must focus on these tactics as part of their daily routine so that they are able to contribute to a culture of improved quality of care that will have a lasting impact on the nursing practice environment and the patients who are served (Fink et.al, 2012).

References

Fink, R., Gilmartin, H., Richard, A., Capezuti, E., Boltz, M., & Wald, H. (2012). Indwelling urinary catheter management and catheter-associated urinary tract infection prevention practices in Nurses Improving Care for Healthsystem Elders hospitals. American journal of infection control, 40(8), 715-720.

Miake-Lye, I. M., Hempel, S., Ganz, D. A., & Shekelle, P. G. (2013). Inpatient fall prevention programs as a patient safety strategy: a systematic review. Annals of internal medicine, 158(5_Part_2), 390-396.

Perla, R. J., Bradbury, E., & Gunther?Murphy, C. (2013). Large?Scale Improvement Initiatives in Healthcare: A Scan of the Literature. Journal for Healthcare Quality, 35(1), 30-40.

Rademakers, J., Delnoij, D., & de Boer, D. (2011). Structure, process or outcome: which contributes most to patients’ overall assessment of healthcare quality?. BMJ Quality & Safety, bmjqs-2010.