Assessment Description Paper

Assessment Description Paper

Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA)

Part 1

1. What are you trying to accomplish? (The aim statement).

Gaps in nurse skills and knowledge limit the quality of care in health care organizations. Nurses deliver primary care in any health care organization. The aim of the assignment is to address the need for formal training and mentoring nurses to ensure adequate health care delivery and attain a positive patient outcome. This would ensure quality improvement. The PDSA model will be applied as it has been used widely in quality improvement (Leis & Shojania, 2017).

2. How will you know if the change is an improvement? (What measures of success will you use?)

The performance reviews from the nurses and the readmission rates of patients would be important in assessing the proposed change in training and mentoring of nurses and the quality improvement model. The increased performance among the nurses would be recorded as a measure. The reduced admission rates of patients in the facility would also imply an improved quality of care.

3. What changes can you make that will result in improvement? (Change concepts that will be tested).

A change concept is a general idea or an approach to change that has been significant in developing specific ideas for changes that result in improvement. In this topic of mentoring and training nurses, the change concept will be tested using two major ways. First, the health care employee review that shows the strengths and weaknesses of each employee after some period will be important in providing information on the improvement on each employee after undertaking the mentorship and training programs. The second test would be done on the patients using the readmission rates (Hoover et al., 2020). An increase in the readmission rates would imply that the mentoring and training programs for nurses do not improve the healthcare quality. However, a decrease in the readmission rates would imply that the retaining and mentorship program offered to the nurses has a positive impact on improving health care quality.

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The nurse leaders have a role to play in developing the skills of other nurses in the hospital. These nurse leaders have experience and skills gained over time and thus are able to mentor nurses to meet hospital expectations of quality. While the nurses need to be ready for mentoring programs, the nurse leaders would spearhead and organize training seminars for nurses (Hoover et al., 2020). This implies that both the nurses and nurse leaders have a role in the quality improvement and safety initiatives required in any hospital setting.

Part 2

STEP:                                   CYCLE:

 

PLAN

I plan to: Introduce nurse training and mentorship programs to both existing and new nurses at the facility.

I hope this produces: a reduced rate of readmission of patients, which has been on the rise in the past.

Steps to execute (include a minimum of five steps):

1. Hire professional nurse educators with advanced experience in nursing to mentor and train nurses.
2. Communicate to the nurses the impending mentorship program and training that will be happening practically with patients.
3. Draft a mentorship plan that will run for three months and provide a copy to all competent nurses who will be training and mentoring other nurses.
4. Provide all necessary resources that would assist nurse learning and provide an effective learning environment for all nurses at the facility.
5. Allow the mentors to socialize with their mentees by highlighting to them how they will be undertaking the entire process.
6. Encourage nurses to make use of their mentors and ensure maximum learning on various complex issues they have been facing within the health care system.

DO

What would you anticipate/predict to observe (include a minimum of five observations)?

1. I expect to see a change in the understanding of patients and improved communication with patients to comprehend their needs.
2. I expect a positive association between the nurses and the mentors in performing critical care services at the clinic with the mentees.
3. I would expect to see a significant number of patients signing discharge summaries within the period of the mentorship program.
4. I expect the integration of new evidence-based practices in delivering care.
5. I anticipate enhanced job satisfaction among the nurses within the training and mentoring period.
   

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STUDY

Describe how you would measure the results and compare them to the prediction.

Different indicators would define a positive outcome from the mentorship program. The number of senior professionals tasked with training the nurses is few. However, the few mentors are enough to improve the nursing skills of the current nurses (Eckerson, 2018). These senior nurses, who are supposed to be the mentors, face various constraints like lack of enough time and increased workload. Therefore, the workload for these nurses would be reduced because they will be using the assigned nurses in performing various tasks within the hospital.

The increased job satisfaction from both nurses and mentors will be an effective way to measure the outcome and value of the mentorship programs in the facility. Solving employee retention problems requires the management to allow the nurses to develop a sense of belonging with the hospital. Training is one of the ways of equipping our nurses with top-notch skills that allow them to thrive in the healthcare industry.

I will focus on the application of the new EBP approach in healthcare. Many nurses within our facility have information about effective EBP practices that can bring positive outcomes to a patient, but they lack understanding of the application of the practices to the patients. This EBP practice would empower nurses to meet their duties and responsibilities at the facility (Hoover et al., 2020). A satisfied nurse would be more productive as compared to an unsatisfied nurse. The impact of the mentoring programs in enabling the nurses to love their nurse duties has an impact on the overall improvement of care within the facility.

I will receive a daily update from the mentors on the improvement they noted from their mentees and an effective approach that would heighten their learning skills. This measure will as well aid in measuring the communication abilities of the mentees and devise an effective approach that would improve their communication with the mentors and the patients (Eckerson, 2018). The power of the nurse’s work relies on effective communication that would allow them to reduce human errors and meet the expectations of the patients. Positive communication between nurses and other health care professionals allows for an effective flow of treatment for patients, thus raising the quality of the service delivery.

ACT

The first cycle plan will provide the overall direction that the next cycle will take. The success of the entire program would be evident in the first cycle. As the nurse leader, I will have an imperative role to play in ensuring that experience and professionalism define health care delivery at a hospital (Hoover et al., 2020). This would be by ensuring that all resources that would favor the training and learning of the nurses are in place. Besides, the outsourcing of all the resources required in the next cycles is in place to meet the objective of the mentorship and training program that would improve the quality of healthcare at the facility.

In the next cycles, I would create more time for the mentors and mentees to spend in the patient room learning new skills and practices that defines the current quality of healthcare. Besides, I would measure the progress of the trained nurses in terms of their ability to deal with a wide range of patients, as this would aid in examining the path of success of the entire program within the facility.

References

Eckerson, C. M. (2018). The impact of nurse residency programs in the United States on improving retention and satisfaction of new nurse hires: an evidence-based literature review. Nurse Education Today, 71, 84-90. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2018.09.003

Hoover, J., Koon, A. D., Rosser, E. N., & Rao, K. D. (2020). Mentoring the working nurse: a scoping review. Human Resources for Health, 18(1), 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-020-00491-x

Leis, J. A., & Shojania, K. G. (2017). A primer on PDSA: executing plan–do–study–act cycles in practice, not just in name. BMJ Quality & Safety, 26(7), 572-577. http://dx.doi.org/10.1136/bmjqs-2016-006245

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The purpose of this assignment is to analyze the application of a commonly used quality improvement model. Choose a quality improvement topic that interests you and conduct research on your selected topic. Using your research, complete the “Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) Template” to plan for the next step in the quality improvement process for your selected topic.

This assignment requires a minimum of two scholarly resources.

While APA style is not required for the body of this assignment, solid academic writing is expected, and documentation of sources should be presented using APA formatting guidelines, which can be found in the APA Style Guide, located in the Student Success Center.