The Impact of Nursing Care on Health Care Quality
Tasha N. Herndon
Duquesne University
GPNG 525 Organizational and Clinical Leadership in Nursing and Healthcare
Carolyn Griffin
October 31, 2015
The Impact of Nursing Care on Health Care quality
Nurses are the primary caregivers in all health care settings. Nursing care is an essential part of patient care and delivered in many diverse settings. The quantity of nurses and their vital role in caregiving are compelling motives for determining their impact to patients’ experiences and outcomes. The degree of patient’s satisfaction with nursing care is an important indicator of the quality of care delivered in health care environments (Atallah, Hamdan-Mansour, Al-Sayed, & Aboshaiqah, 2013). The impact of nursing care on health care quality cannot be overlooked. In the paragraphs that follow to gain and offer a better understanding of the health care quality model, this author will: give a personal interpretation of health care quality, discuss health care trends in the United States and what makes an organization a high or low performing agency, describe how the main goal of the Institute of Medicine (IOM) affects nursing care, and address nursing responsibility to health care quality according to the American Nurses’ Association (ANA) Code of Ethics.
Significance of Health Care Quality Model
The term quality in health care is somewhat subjective and can be defined in many ways. Quality means diverse things to
This paper seeks to expand upon the 2010 Institute of Medicine’s report on the future of nursing, leading change, advancing health and illustrating its impact on nursing education, practice and leadership. There is an ongoing transformation in the healthcare system necessitated by the need to achieve a patient centered care in the community, public, and primary care settings in contrast to previous times. Nurses occupying vital roles in the healthcare system, need improvements in the areas mentioned above to
Quality of care is the fundamental goal of health care, yet it is difficult to define. It is a concept that health care policy and programming strives for, and that many have attempted to elucidate. Given its many components and manifestations, defining and quantifying
The Institute of Medicine’s 2010 report on The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health acknowledges the changing healthcare sector in the US and describes future vision of healthcare and the role of nurses to fulfill that vision. The United States always strives to provide affordable and quality healthcare to the entire population of the country. In order to achieve this goal an overall restructuring of the healthcare system was necessitated. Nurses are considered to be the central part of the healthcare system to provide high quality and safe patient care. Nursing in the US is the single largest segment of the healthcare workforce with almost 3 million nurses working in different areas across the county. The changing
Definitions of the quality of medical care are no longer left to clinicians who decide for themselves what technical performance constitutes “good care.” What are the other dimensions of quality care and why are they important? What has changed since the days when “doctor knows best?”
This paper brings up my personal nursing philosophy that I am planning to deliver in my nursing career. I believe that nursing is more than merely as a profession, it also involves my medical knowledge combined it with a commitment to quality nursing care with compassion, respect, dignity, and advocacy for each patient. I believe that the interdisciplinary care and collaboration in the medical field are crucial elements that lead to a healthy relationship among healthcare professionals in promoting quality patient care that is individualized to each patient’s needs.
Dr. Avedis Donabedian developed a model for categorizing and measuring the quality of healthcare providing a framework that conceptualized quality in broad terms and classification to measure and assess different aspects of quality in nursing care (Sollecito & Johnson, 2013). In the footsteps of Donabedian’s framework, Dr. Beatrice Kalisch developed a model conceptualizing missed nursing care otherwise known as “unfinished nursing care” or “care left undone”. Missed nursing care as defined in the Missed Nursing Care Model is any aspect of required patient care that is omitted, either in part or whole, or delayed (Kalisch, Landstrom, & Hinshaw, 2009). The structural aspects Kalisch’s model include labor resources, nursing staff, competency level of staff, education and experience, material resources, teamwork and communication. Kalisch model indicates that nurses with recent restricted resources in the nursing process determining clinical priorities is costly making decisions either to delay or omit certain care and is heavily influenced by team perception, nurse judgment, ("Missed Nursing Care AHRQ," 2015).
quality of patient care, and can be implemented in practice, to provide solutions to nursing
The impact of the IOM report on nursing practice particularly in primary care reports that the need for patient-centered care be evaluated. This including more community care rather than acute care, more primary care then specialty care, and enabling all health care professionals to practice to their full educational backgrounds. The IOM reported that nurses were able to develop a stronger relationship with the client, being able to take better care of them during and after their care increasing a better outcome for their health needs. The need for nurses be able to practice in the primary care setting grew with the shortage of medical students and residents not wanting to enter the primary care facilities. The end results of nurses entering the primary care setting will provide higher-quality care, reduce errors, and increase patient safety.
Nursing-sensitive indicators are defined by the American Nursing Association (ANA) as “indicators that reflect the structure, process and outcomes of nursing care” (ANA, 2014). These indicators help define how nursing care is given by measuring the amount of nursing staff, skill level of the nursing staff, and the education level of nursing staff. These indicators depict the quality of care provided to patients and the outcomes of the care provided. Careful tracking of these indicators provides evidence for keeping current practices or for implementing new policy and procedures. A formal set of indicators measuring the impact nursing interventions have on patient care was not implemented until 1998 (Montalvo, I. (2007). With the establishment of the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQI), hospitals and other care settings are able to assess how nursing interventions impact patient outcomes, quality of care, and the overall work environment in health care facilities. Nursing-sensitive indicators are a quality improvement measure used to determine how the quality of nursing care is evaluated in hospitals and other healthcare facilities. Nurse sensitive indicators allow healthcare facilities to evaluate how the care they are providing is following evidence-based practices and how they can improve their practices to achieve better patient outcomes. The American Nurses Association is promoting these indicators as the definitive standards for patient care
Quality is one of the most essential elements of healthcare. As stated by the Agency of Health Research and Quality, “Everyday, millions of Americans receive high-quality health care that helps to maintain or restore their health and ability to function” (Agency of Health Research and Quality, 2014). Improvements have become vital to the success of health care organizations and in the Healthcare Quality Book, it is explained that quality in the U.S. healthcare system is not at the standard that it should be (Ransom, Joshi, Nash & Ransom, 2008). Although this has been a reoccurring issue, attempts to fix the insufficiency have been less successful than expected.
In November of 2010, the Institute of Medicine (IOM) released “The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health”. This special report examined the current state of nursing and changing landscape of the American healthcare system and offered recommendations for the future role nurses should play. The committee that released the report, Committee on the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, divided it into three parts. Part II of the study, focused on transforming the nursing profession in order to improve America’s healthcare system. In order to achieve this transformation, the committee recommended that nurses attain higher levels of education and training, practice to the full extent of that education and training, and assume more
In the medical fraternity, nurses make up the largest healthcare profession. The care of patients depends on the well-being of the nurses, and issues affecting them may affect patients, directly or indirectly. As a profession, nursing, can be both an extremely rewarding and challenging activity. A number of problems exist, and most are becoming worse because of lack of lack of mechanisms to address these issues. The three greatest issues affecting nursing today include improving health education, lack of respect for nurses and cost cutting. Although these problems are not clinical, they influence the efficiency of the performance of nurses in their delivery of services.
Nursing care delivery is defined as the way task allocation, responsibility, and authority are organized to achieve patient care. Tiedeman and Lookinland (2004) suggested that systems of nursing care delivery are a reflection of social values, management ideology, and economic considerations. (Tiedeman&Lookinland, 2004) According to Fewer (2006), the quality of nursing care delivery systems affects continuity of care, the relationship between nurse and patient, morale, nurse job satisfaction and educational preparation.(Fewer, 2006) Nurses are essential human resources to provide medical services with professional knowledge and skills in the healthcare setting. However, the registered nurse turnover rate has increased in recent years resulting
Nurse staffing and how it relates to the quality of patient care has been an important issue in the field of nursing for quite some time. This topic has been particularly popular recently due to the fact that there is an increasing age among those who make up the Baby Boomer era in the United States. There will be a greater need for nurse staffing to increase to help accommodate the higher demand of care. Although nursing is “the top occupation in terms of job growth,” there are still nursing shortages among various hospitals across America today. The shortage in nurses heavily weighs on the overall quality of care that each individual patient receives during their hospital stay (Rosseter, 2014).
The World Health Organization outlines 6 areas of quality that help shape our definition of what makes quality care. Those areas are; (1) Effective: using evidence bases practice to improve health outcomes based on needs of individuals and communities. (2) Efficient: healthcare that maximizes