Nursing Leadership: Performance Management and Patient Care

As a motivated workforce and role model in the dynamic and rapid changing of health care system, leadership skill is one of the most important competencies of advanced practice nurse (APN). This skill should be taught, practiced, nurtured and enhanced during APN education more than ever before. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) state that nurses are important full partners and leaders in the transformation of health care (Hamric, Hanson, Tracy, & O’Grady, 2014). According to Hamric et. al (2014), nurses should take on more leadership roles to have their voices heard. APNs not only have a stake in these efforts, but also have the clinical expertise and leadership that can ensure success (Hamric et. al, 2014). This paper aims to examine the

This paper aims to address and discuss about the leadership and management of the nurse leader interviewed. This experience was a great opportunity to witness first hand how a nurse leader cultivate and manage their staffs in real life setting. Moreover, it provides a great access to gain insight and knowledge about nurse leaders’ vital responsibilities and role diversities in the organizations they work with. Nurse leaders pay more specific and close attention in handling the staffs and most importantly, patient care.

Outcome based processes geared towards improving outcomes by implementing performance improvement checks on all complaints or negative feedback acquired from patients, healthcare providers, employees, vendors (all stakeholders) and environment of care rounds. These would include QC measures, infectious control measures, ACC measures, HCAP measures to name a few. Align with nationally recognized locators for healthcare facilities to compare our organization with local and nationally recognized healthcare organizations to see where we rank. Strategic goals established by The Joint Commission and initiatives by CMS will help improve overall performance.

Nursing guidance is a complex but essential part of the nursing workforce. Guidance can come in the form of management and in the form of leadership. The two terms are often used interchangeably, but do not always mean the same thing. The nurse manager is often someone who has authority from the facility to be in management. The nursing leader may not have authority over other nurses, but may be a strong guide in the workplace for other nurses and nursing staff. Nursing as a profession is ever-changing and increasingly challenging. Nurse managers are tasked with an enormous variety of functions in their respective workplaces, budgeting, scheduling, hiring, disciplinary actions, implementing facility policies and procedures, and the

Quality management is essential to the success of the quality improvement of the health care industry. “Management uses management and planning tools to organize the decision making process and create a hierarchy when faced with competing priorities “( Ransom, et al., 2008). Quality measures should have these goals: effective, safe, efficient, patient-centered, equitable, and timely care (Quality Measures, Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services, 2011).

This quality improvement discussion will review the purpose of quality management in health care industry and why it is needed. Included in this QI report will be an explanation of the

Benchmarking for clinical performance measurement involves collecting and reporting data on practices’ clinical processes and outcomes. Measuring clinical performance can create buy-in for improvement work in the practice and enables the practice to track their improvements over time. This information should also be used to identify and prioritize improvement goals and to track progress toward those goals. In addition, these data should be used to monitor maintenance of changes already made ("Module 7. measuring," 2013). Benchmarking can also be utilized to do a comparison between other health care organizations, provide areas where training could improve staff functions.

Quality improvement is a systematic and continuous process which leads to improvements in healthcare services. The health services are then a reflection of the improving health status of a patient population (Health Resources & Services Administration, n.d.). Quality improvement strategies are the actions which a team will take to accomplish the goals of process improvement. The Institute of Medicine (2001) has developed a vision of six aims for improvement in healthcare which include, safe, effective, patient-centered, timely, efficient, and equitable care. Making improvements in these areas will better meet the needs of patients.

Various methodologies exist for the integration of quality improvement strategies into performance improvement measures. With concepts of total quality management (TQM) and quality improvement (QI) being introduced to health care organizations; administrators have had to decide which methodology is right for the organization. There are numerous methodologies: Six Sigma, Lean, and Customer Inspired Quality. Each has its own pros and cons. A key component of quality improvement is the technology that gathers and compares the data that the quality improvement measure

Our Performance and Quality Improvement Process is based on the Continuous Quality Improvement Model which focuses on the importance of continuing to ask “Can we do it better? Can we do this more quickly? Is there something else we could do to improve the quality of care for our clients and the tools for our staff who deliver this high quality care?” In this model, the point is to focus on improvement even when nothing is wrong.

Having effective leadership and management is essential for any health care facility to operate. Both leadership and management are an essential part to delivering quality healthcare to the patients that they serve. The foundation to any facility is nursing which must be led by the best leadership and management available for its continued success. This is the key to helping that facility to achieve a high level of patient and employee satisfaction. Having adequate staffing for any facility is an issue that many facilities face due to the shortage of nurses. This paper will compare and contrast nurse leaders and managers thoughts with the use of contract employees to assist with the shortage of nursing staff. It will also show support with theory, principles, skills, and roles of the leader versus the manager. It will also identify the writer’s personal philosophy of nursing as well as explain her own personal style of leadership.

One way that an organization can use benchmarks and performance measures to monitor success of quality improvement initiatives is by measuring overall organizational quality improvement and benchmark amount of waste. By measuring overall quality improvement and setting quality improvement benchmarks, the team can verify if the undertaken quality improvement initiative had a positive impact on overall quality improvement for the betterment of patients. Conversely, quality improvement performance measures can also indicate if some areas of the QI plan need improvement or have been unsuccessful. By analyzing quality improvement performance measures and benchmarks, the QI initiative will provide better indication as to if the bottom line of improving patient outcomes is attainable and or achieved. Or if the quality improvement initiative has had a negative impact on patient outcomes and what QI processes need to be addresses. Benchmarking can help the QI team get a better understanding as to how well the QI initiative goals have done compared to previous processes. If the QI team sets a benchmark to improve the number of patients seen on a day to day basis by adopting a new QI process and does not succeed. The team can then use the QI initiative benchmark and quality improvement performance measures to analyze gathered data and fix the issue or change the quality improvement plan

There are always pros and cons to any quality improvement methodology. For instance, the pros of Six Sigma tend to place extreme importance on leadership and its support for the success of the project. Another pro is the integration of different human elements, which include cultural change, and focus on the customer and their needs. “By using the concept of statistical thinking, Six Sigma encourages applications of statistical tools and techniques that reduce variability” (Harry, 2000). The cons of Six Sigma include, not having the quality data available, especially when a new process has been implemented without having the data available. Often the solutions that Six Sigma proposes can be costly and only a small

Healthcare organizations have a responsibility to its consumers and various stakeholders to ensure only the highest quality care is delivered. Quality measures such as performance measurement and quality improvement processes play a critical role in helping organizations achieve quality outcomes. This paper will contrast performance measurement and quality improvement processes. In addition, this paper will discuss a healthcare organization, Gulf Coast Medical Center, its mission and QI goals, and the role of the consumer and stakeholders in the QI process.

Quality Improvement is a process that is driven by results. It is used to develop improvements in healthcare services that are deficient (Hamric et al., 2014). QI is utilized to focus on improving identified areas in order to enhance