Quality Improvement An Issue Of Nursing Clinics

With collaboration of Dr. Steve Krau, Consulting Editor, Drs. Leming-Lee and Watters have created an issue that provides state-of-the-art content on quality improvement. Top authors have contributed clinical reviews on the following topics: Quality improvement: Application of evidence-based practice; The application of the Virginia Mason production system to improve large scale quality outcomes in an acute care hospital; The application of the Toyota production system Lean 5S methodology in the operating room setting; Chart it to stop it: A quality improvement project to increase the reporting of workplace aggression; Reducing pressure injuries in the pediatric intensive care unit; Improving stress-induced hyperglycemic management in the ICU setting; Evaluation of telemetry utilization on medical-surgical floors; Implementation of a nurse-driven CAUTI prevention protocol; A quality improvement project to test the effectiveness of a patient-centered pathway and discharge tool on heart failure patient engagement; Diabetes self-management education provision by an interprofessional collaborative team: A quality improvement project; Increasing effective patient-triage nurse communication using a targeted history question; and Barriers to the implementation of pediatric overweight and obesity guidelines in a school-based health center. Nurses will come away with the current information they need to improve patient outcomes.

The Future of Nursing explores how nurses' roles, responsibilities, and education should change significantly to meet the increased demand for care that will be created by health care reform and to advance improvements in America's increasingly complex health system. At more than 3 million in number, nurses make up the single largest segment of the health care work force. They also spend the greatest amount of time in delivering patient care as a profession. Nurses therefore have valuable insights and unique abilities to contribute as partners with other health care professionals in improving the quality and safety of care as envisioned in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) enacted this year. Nurses should be fully engaged with other health professionals and assume leadership roles in redesigning care in the United States. To ensure its members are well-prepared, the profession should institute residency training for nurses, increase the percentage of nurses who attain a bachelor's degree to 80 percent by 2020, and double the number who pursue doctorates. Furthermore, regulatory and institutional obstacles-including limits on nurses' scope of practice-should be removed so that the health system can reap the full benefit of nurses' training, skills, and knowledge in patient care. In this book, the Institute of Medicine makes recommendations for an action-oriented blueprint for the future of nursing.

"Nurses play a vital role in improving the safety and quality of patient car -- not only in the hospital or ambulatory treatment facility, but also of community-based care and the care performed by family members. Nurses need know what proven techniques and interventions they can use to enhance patient outcomes. To address this need, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), with additional funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has prepared this comprehensive, 1,400-page, handbook for nurses on patient safety and quality -- Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses. (AHRQ Publication No. 08-0043)." - online AHRQ blurb, http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nurseshdbk/

This issue contains a series of articles focused on various initiatives aimed at improving the quality of patient care delivery and promoting safe passage across the continuum of care. Exemplary, evidence-based nursing practice is the cornerstone of quality care, and this issue highlights many ways in which nurses have led changes to optimize patient outcomes. In addition, quality care enhances cost-effectiveness by reducing avoidable complications and diminishing avoidable hospital readmissions, a concept more important than ever due to value-based purchasing and the Affordable Care Act. Articles are specifically devoted to prevention of delirium in critical care patients, palliative care in the intensive care unit, prevention of pressure ulcers, fall prevention in high-risk patients, prevention readmissions, preventing sepsis mortality, and nursing interventions in the elderly critical care patient, to name a few.

This issue of Perioperative Nursing Clinics, Guest Edited by Mickey L. Parsons, PhD, MHA, RN, FAAN, and Nancy Girard, PhD, RN, FAAN, will focus on National Quality and Payment Policy: Strategies for Nursing Leadership and Practice, with article topics including: Value Based Purchasing; Leadership and Practice Framework for Success in the Era of Transparency; Evaluating an Innovative Organizational Strategy; Nursing Units as Learning Practice Communities; Healthcare Quality: Implementation of the Clinical Nurse Leader (CNL) Role; Teaching Nurses to Utilize Dashboards; Understanding the Patient’s Experience; Healthcare Quality and Ethics; and PACU Nurses and Patient Safety Climate.

This book and CD-ROM clearly outline a nurse leader's role in quality improvement and offer simple instructions to improve patient outcomes through nurse education and engagement. In an easy-to-understand format, this guide explains how to engage staff, how to choose, measure, and benchmark nursing quality data, and how to use QI projects to achieve positive results."

uality Improvement: A Guide for Integration in Nursing serves as a comprehensive resource for teaching practicing nurses and nursing students about the importance of improving patient care and reducing errors through quality improvement.

This issue of Nursing Clinics of North America, Guest Edited by Joanne Disch, PhD, RN, FAAN, and Jane Barnsteiner, PhD, RN, FAAN, will focus on Second Generation Work with QSEN, with article topics including: Second Victim; Interprofessional education for QSEN; The Quality Burden; New technologies for teaching quality and safety; Creating Academic/Clinical Partnerships; Incorporating QSEN into Pre-Licensure Programs; Innovative Strategies for Embedding QSEN; Gaining Senior Level Support for QSEN; and Nursing Internships to Promote Quality and Safety.