Competency
In this project, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following competencies:
Integrate knowledge of quality improvement within the healthcare industry
Analyze factors that impact a culture of safety
Overview
As a healthcare professional, you must understand the role that continuous quality improvement (CQI) plays in healthcare. It can be a challenge to understand the meaning of quality improvement (QI), the process that goes along with QI, and the importance of QI in making changes and improving outcomes. Many components must be considered for a QI initiative to be successful. Some of those components include the data that informs the need for change and the team members needed for their unique contributions. Proper QI processes also include the use of a change model and QI tools to inform the QI process. QI in healthcare is driven by the commitment to continuously improve the quality of care, leading to better health outcomes for individuals and communities.
Scenario
Your organization has budgeted to complete three QI initiatives for this fiscal term. As part of the QI team, you have been asked to write a blog post that explains the QI process, and the blog will be included in the digital newsletter that is disseminated to all healthcare professionals in the organization. Many quality concerns for improvement have been presented to leadership. You will review them and incorporate one QI initiative into your blog as an example. The quality concerns to choose from include:
Low breastfeeding rates
High readmission rates
Extended emergency room wait times
High rate of surgical site infections
High maternal mortality in Black women
Low rates of appropriate sepsis care
Limited mental health treatment access
Directions
Write an internal blog post for your organization’s digital newsletter. This blog will cover QI initiatives as part of CQI. Choose one quality concern from the list in the scenario to focus on throughout your blog to aid in describing the role that data, team members, change models, and QI tools play in the QI process. This blog is geared toward other healthcare professionals. Therefore, your blog needs to be informational and provide accurate QI information.
You must cite at least four current scholarly sources. To be considered current, scholarly sources must have been published within the last five years.
Specifically, you must address the following rubric criteria:
QI: Describe CQI in the healthcare setting. Specifically, include the following in your response:
Concepts associated with CQI. Consider the following:
What CQI is
The history of CQI
Why healthcare needs it
Why healthcare should prioritize QI
Definition of QI initiatives
QI Initiative: Connect a QI initiative to a quality concern. Specifically, include the following in your response:
A quality concern (from the list above)
The rationale for selection of the quality concern based on evidence and scholarly research
A proposed QI initiative to improve your chosen quality concern
Data: Discuss the types of data that can inform your QI initiative. Consider the following in your response:
Data found within an organization
National and state databases
Quality indicators
Nursing sensitive quality indicators
Potential financial implications for the healthcare organization regarding reimbursement
Team: Identify the interprofessional team members that would be involved with your QI initiative. Consider the following in your response:
The stakeholders (both internal and external) of QI initiatives
The importance of interprofessional collaboration to QI initiatives
All of the personnel needed to make a QI initiative successful
Change Models: Align a change model to your QI initiative. Choose one change model, then include the following in your examination:
Description of the change model
The alignment of the change model to the QI initiative
Tools: Describe one QI tool that can be used with your QI initiative. Specifically, include the following in your response:
Description of the QI tool
The application of the tool to the QI initiative