Quality Improvement Strategies

1.      What did I expect to learn about this topic before beginning the unit? I expected to understand what continuous quality improvement is and how it can help me in my nursing practice on a day to day basis. I also wanted to understand more about the QSEN competencies and what those are exactly.

2.      What I actually learned: Finding a problem and making a decision on how to solve it…this is the important part.

In systems, a common cause (constantly active in a system) is predictable where a special cause (new, unanticipated) is unpredictable.

Reacting to common causes is like scraping burnt toast. Deming says this is how most of us make our decisions…we react to common cause and just scrape the burnt part of the toast hoping to expose the good part. We do this by using different methods (knife, fork, faster, slower). We may even just cover up the problem with peanut butter. The solution is this: fix the toaster itself which is the root cause or in other words, the special cause. That is where the problem is.  

One quality improvement goal is to reduce variability-all processes vary.  When we interfere with processes, things get worse. In healthcare and in my nursing practice, sometimes it is easy to make a type 2 error, or react to something based on the last piece of information (complaint from a patient for example).

Quality improvement goes hand in hand with patient safety. It’s crazy to hear the numbers of catheter associated UTIs or the number of surgeries where the wrong body part gets worked on. Quality is everyone’s responsibility.

Our healthcare system in the U.S. is not perfect. However, with our commitment to CQI, we can learn, grow, and develop in a positive way and provide better patient outcomes and create a more satisfied people.

3.      My feelings/experiences from the individual and team activities:

I thought our team discussion went well, but nobody was really coming to a consensus. I think we all understand what roles each member of the interdisciplinary team plays and that is it important as nurses not to overstep the nurse-patient relationship boundaries.

For the critical thinking assignment, I thought it was good to think about how I would help a new graduate RN provide better patient centered care using the QSEN competencies. Since I am in the new grad position right now, it made me stop and think about how I plan my day and what I base it off of. Learning what resources are available for myself as well as what I can turn to if I have questions or am in the position to teach someone else is always good.

4.      How I will utilize the information learned in my nursing practice:

I will continue to strive to provide better patient centered care which will help increase patient safety as well as provide a more well-rounded, wholesome care to my patients. I’ll remember the burnt toast analogy and rather than reacting to the immediate complaint or problem I can take a step back and analyze the situation. I can try and find the real source of the problem and solve it from there.

5.      My personal feelings about the material covered:

I thought this week was interesting. The concepts were somewhat hard to grasp right away but as I watched each video and did some reading it started to fit together and make more sense. As I have reflected and answered more questions I realize the relationship between each concept and how they fit together.