Essentials of Baccalaureate Education in Nursing requires bachelor-educated nurses to understand nine important topics (AACN, 2020). Quality and Safety Education for Nurses has helped me learn many things that apply to achieving these essentials. The most important essential that I have gained knowledge of is Interprofessional Communication and Collaboration for Improving Patient Health Outcomes. Continuous quality improvement is a process in which safety, processes, and patient care can be improved. The continuous quality improvement process is modeled after a Plan, Do, Study, Act cycle (O’Donnell & Gupta, 2022). Knowledge of the continuous quality improvement process will allow growth as a nurse individually and professionally.
I plan to integrate this knowledge into my nursing practice by becoming more active in the unit-based teams present in my unit. I had not realized that the changes made in my department were an effort to use the CQI process. Now that I am aware of the purpose of initiating change, I am motivated to help in this process. I plan to initiate a CQI project to initiate the standardization of report sheets. I think this would benefit the patients, by having the nursing staff share the same information consistently. When the bedside nurse is aware of what is expected to be known for each patient, they will be prepared. This will improve patient care and patient safety. If standardized reports are implemented, we can assess many areas of care to see if improvements are being made. Medication errors and improved parent satisfaction are two possible areas to be assessed.
This course has built on the knowledge that I already had by highlighting how to initiate change. As a nurse, I knew that practices changed based on evidence-based research. I was not aware of the CQI process that is used. I also did not realize the impact that I could have individually on initiating change. Understanding the steps and using measurable goals has shown me the value each staff member can have to improve their unit and ultimately increase patient safety.
References
AACN. (2020). The Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice. American Association of Colleges of Nursing.
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