Quality and Safety Concept
Importance of Institute for Healthcare Improvement
In the healthcare system, it is the task of nurses to promote quality and use the appropriate strategy to enhance patient safety. Hughes (2008) reveals that patient safety is achieved when clinical staffs and healthcare leaders avoid errors in the workplace, minimizing acute failure, and nurses ensure that organizational failure do not occur. In reference to this point the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (2017), have incorporated the aspect of patient safety and quality to its work, with the objective of ensuring that the care services are offered in the right manner, patient harm is minimized, and the rate of mortality is as low as possible. This means that Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) plays a critical role to the enhancement of the well-being of the patient in terms of care safety and quality.
Therefore, as a nurse, gaining the IHI certificate can be valuable in many ways. For instance, the for personal benefit, the IHI certificate can help me become more competitive in the job market, as I can use the certificate to show employers my determination to learn, progress professionally, and desire to improve my skills needed to respond to various needs of the patients. I can also utilize the IHI certificate as a document to show employers my credibility, as well as my career achievement. Importantly, I can say that the IHI certificate is a powerful document that can give me a number of opportunities in the case of pursuing a nursing job.
Evidence-Based Practice (EBP)
Today, evidence-based healthcare practices have become a fundamental principle in the hospitals, whereby through research of evidence about certain health issues, nurses get in a better position to ensure that there is standard in the healthcare system, quality improvement, and safety is a primary focus when responding to the requirements of the patients. Titler (2008) reveals that EBP is applied for different conditions that include heart failure, diabetes, and asthma. However, in every case where one needs to understand the concept of EBP, it is necessary to have ideas on the strategies to use when evaluating primary research in order to use the data in the survey to come up with a concept to be applied in the nursing practice (Berger et al., 2014).
Relevancy and Believability of Data
First, to evaluate a research based on the concept of EBP, one should consider the relevance and believability of data. In assessing an EBP research, I can determine the relevancy and credibility of data so that I can understand if the result of the investigation is useful to the nursing system, in particular in departments that require critical knowledge and skills. To determine the relevant of the data in EBP surveys, I would evaluate the population used in the research, the research outcomes, and applicability of the context involved in the research (Berger et al., 2014). To analyze the believability of the data presented in the EBP research, I will appraise the study findings to determine the accuracy of the findings and if the study results have the capability to answer the question of a survey.
Quality Improvement (QI) and Research
In evident based practice, understanding the difference between the aspect of quality improvement and research is significant, as it can help me understand sustainability in the nursing system and the areas that need priority for development. As I look at the report prepared by the Institute for Health Improvement (2017), it is apparent to say that quality improvement as an element of EBP is a process that takes place through measuring and making changes within the nursing practice with the goal of testing a particular healthcare theory. Contrarily, EBP research refers to a practice that is carried out systematically, with the objective of answering a particular problem relating to the nursing practice.
Primary and Secondary Studies
On the other hand, as EBP is based on both secondary and primary research, they two types of surveys are contrary to each other, mostly due to the applicability of research methodology. As such, primary survey refers to the process of gathering data directly from the study population or the patients themselves. On the contrary, secondary research is described as the analysis of the data that has been already processed using primary sources.
Implications
The two types of research have direct implications on the clinical practices (Gopalakrishnan & Ganeshkumar, 2013). For example, primary investigations are essential, as they give nurses an opportunity to facilitate trails on new practices, healthcare facilities, and test the perspective of patients directly regarding different subjects of nursing. Conversely, secondary studies have implications for the nursing practices, as the surveys synthesize the findings of primary investigations focusing on a particular topic, with the goal of reducing biases and random errors that might have occurred in the primary research.
Reflection
From a personal perspective, the nursing course has been resourceful and didactic to me, as I am now aware of important of both primary and secondary research to the concept of evidence-based practice. From the coursework, I now know that evidence-based healthcare involves the integration of different clinical evidence that has a feature of clinical expertise and the value of the patients. I have also learned that medical practitioners can utilize evidence-based practice to inform care decisions, as EBP has the potentiality of ensuring that decisions executed in the hospitals are based on best practices and no variations in the healthcare processes to influence the decisions.
Applied Leadership
Leadership is the behavior of a person directing others so that they can play their part to the achievement of the shared goals set by the hospital leaders (Al-Sawai, 2013). For the modern hospitals, leadership has become an integral concept needed for the operation of administration and healthcare tasks. Leaders in the healthcare setting are known for the duty of motivating nurses and providing clinical staffs with standard guidance when change is being implemented in the system. However, leadership in the healthcare enterprises cannot be effective if the hospitals do not initiate collaboration and teamwork. O’Daniel and Rosenstein (2008) allude that collaboration in the healthcare enhances communication improvement, fosters teamwork, and aid nurses to prevent errors associated with the care processes. Therefore, the aspect of collaboration in the hospitals can assist leaders to foster effective leadership program, as cooperating with other staffs will create effective communication, trust, respect, and shared decision-making process. All of these factors signify effective leadership, and hospitals can achieve them if leaders are allowed to team up with junior nurses and senior staffs.
Professional Roles and Values of Nurses
As a nursing leader, one is supposed to understand his or her professional roles together with the values that are used to exhibit the functioning of the healthcare system. Some of my professional roles as a nurse include planning for different activities taking place in the hospital, organizing different tasks to facilitate the achievement of the health care goals, and monitoring the behavior of the nursing staffs so that I can ensure that they deliver care services appropriately. On the case of values of my course, as a professional clinician, I intend to use nursing core values to maintain integrity in the healthcare system and shape the social policies applied in the care setting. The fundamental values of nursing that I have developed throughout my course include the value of respecting the preference of the patient and working according to the right of the patient. With the understanding of these values, as a nurse, I focus on maintaining and improving the quality of the healthcare system.
Reflections on the Nursing Mission Statement
Personally, my nursing mission statement is to advance my career so that I can improve the health of all people in the community. Hence, as the statement is meant to guide me throughout my professionalism, I intend to use this mission statement in developing myself academically and professionally. As such, I will use the mission description as sources of strength, understanding my obligations, and the things that I should consider to promote the health of the patients in need of care services.
Community and Population Health
Community health nursing is a practice carried out to promote and preserve the health of the community or population (Porche, 2004). During the community and population health programs, nurses conduct several tasks such as maintaining and restoring the health of people, preventing the prevalence of specific illnesses and initiating programs that will rehabilitate the individuals diagnosed with different diseases. In summary, during my community health program, I learned that the highly prevalent types of illnesses in the society include lung, breast, and prostate cancer. As it is complex for the people to deter the spread of cancer diseases, I learned the increase of cancer sickness could be prevented by allowing the public to access screening services, as the program aid nurses to detect the disease at the early stages. After working with the population, I was able to understand that to analysis the community in the quest to improve their health; I am supposed to focus on the ideal causes of healthcare problems and how these causes can be minimized. For instance, for the population with the cancer problem, creating accessible health care centers can give medical practitioners an opportunity to cure the disease or even recommend for further medication or hospitalization if needed.
American Museum of Natural History (AMNH)
The American Museum of Natural History (AMNH) is described as one of the outstanding scientific and cultural center across the globe. Many people recognize the institution for its displays and scientific collections, used to present various scenes of the world’s culture and research (American Museum of Natural History, 2017). For the AMNH to exhibit its scientific views, research is done, and every scientific frontier is presented through the application of genetic codes. Thus, with the AMNH considered as an area that is essential for the nursing students focusing on research concerning the science of genetics and ethical issues regarding genetics, the certificate of the institution is substantial in my career as a nurse. The certificate will show my credibility to handle tasks that relate to genetics and genomics as part of nursing practices.
References
Al-Sawai, A., (2013). Leadership of healthcare professionals: where do we stand? Oman Medical Journal, 28(4), 285-287.
American Museum of Natural History, (2017). About Us. Retrieved from: http://www.amnh.org/about-the-museum
Berger, M. L., Martin, B. C., Husereau, D., Worley, K., Allen, J. D., Yang, W., … Crown, W. (2014). A questionnaire to assess the relevance and credibility of observational studies to inform health care decision making: an ISPOR-AMCP-NPC good practice task force report. Value in Health, 17(2), 143-156.
Gopalakrishnan, S., & Ganeshkumar, P. (2013). Systematic reviews and meta-analysis: understanding the best evidence in primary healthcare. Journal of Family Medicine and Primary Care, 2(1), 9-14.
Grady, C., & Edgerly, M. (2009). Science, technology, and innovation: nursing responsibilities in clinical research. Nursing Clinics of North America, 44(4), 471-481.
Hughes, R., (2008). Patient safety and quality: An evidence-based handbook for nurses (Vol. 3). Rockville, MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (U.S.).
Huisman, E. R. C. M., Morales, E., Van Hoof, J., & Kort, H. S. M. (2012). Healing environment: A review of the impact of physical environmental factors on users. Building and Environment, 58, 70-80.
Institute Health Improvement, (2017). About Us. Retrieved from: http://www.ihi.org/about/Pages/default.aspx
Institute Health Improvement, (2017). What’s the Difference Between Research and QI. Retrieved from: http://www.ihi.org/education/IHIOpenSchool/resources/Pages/Activities/Moses-ResearchVsQI.aspx
O’Daniel, M., & Rosenstein, A. H. (2008). Professional communication and team collaboration. MD: Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (U.S.).
Porche, D. J. (2004). Public & community health nursing practice: A population-based approach. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
Titler, M. G. (2008). The evidence for evidence-based practice implementation. Rockville (MD): Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (U.S.).
