Quality and Safety Outcomes

Write an executive summary, 4-5 pages in length, of existing outcome measures related to a performance issue uncovered in your gap analysis that you intend to address.

INTRODUCTION

Note: Each assessment in this course builds on the work you completed in the previous assessment. Therefore, you must complete the assessments in this course in the order in which they are presented.

As a nurse leader, you must be able to access, identify, and describe outcome measures as they relate to safety and quality problems in your organization.

This assessment provides an opportunity to examine existing outcome measures, assess their strategic value, and present your findings to executive leaders in a manner that will help you gain their support.

Quality and safety are everyone’s responsibility as a team of interprofessional care delivery partners. Together we develop policies that support quality and safe care delivery. As part of the interprofessional team, nurses are leaders in care and thus are responsible and accountable for leading and providing safe quality care.

Health care delivery is structured around evidenced-based information. Quality is defined by exploring proven, evidenced-based information. After reviewing and defining evidenced-based information, the interprofessional team applies this knowledge to assess the organization’s or the practice setting’s ability to provide evidenced-based care delivery. When a gap in care is identified, it is important to propose an evidenced-based change and to execute a plan for improved care.

Your summary of relevant outcome measures is based on your findings from the quality and safety gap analysis you completed in the previous assessment.

PREPARATION

Your analysis of the gap between current and desired performance was the first step toward improving outcomes. You now have the information you need to move forward with proposed changes. Your next step is to focus on existing outcome measures and their relationship to the systemic problem you are addressing. For this assessment, you have been asked to draft a summary of existing outcome measures for your organization’s executive team to raise awareness of the problem and the strategic value of existing measures.

Note: Remember that you can submit all or a portion of your draft summary to Smarthinking for feedback before you submit the final version of this assessment. However, be mindful of the turnaround time of 24–48 hours for receiving feedback, if you plan on using this free service.

As you prepare to complete this assessment, you may want to think about other related issues to deepen your understanding or broaden your viewpoint. You are encouraged to consider the questions below and discuss them with a fellow learner, a work associate, an interested friend, or a member of your professional community. Note that these questions are for your own development and exploration and do not need to be completed or submitted as part of your assessment.

Building stakeholder support is crucial to fostering and sustaining change. Therefore, as you approach this assessment, think about the stakeholders whose support you will need for the change you want to bring about.

• What information is most essential for both the formal and informal stakeholders to understand about the proposed change?
• How might you communicate the need for change using just a few sentences (this is often referred to as an “elevator speech”).