Like your organization, Advanced Practice Nurses (APN) are limited in my hospital. They are not
involved in many quality improvement (QI) projects, and in the Emergency department they come to
work and then they go home. There is a large push to hire more APNs, so there is a possibility that this
could change. I also work nights, and I find that APNs that work full time nights are less likely to be
involved in QI projects, because of the meeting times during the day. One major QI project that my
hospital focuses on is benchmarking. According to McEwen &Wills (2019), this is one of the primary
elements of QI. My hospital bench marks our Press Ganey scores, fall scores, pain scores and even rate of
correct moderate sedations. A Press Ganey score measures patient satisfaction and patient experience
(Dempsey, 2016). There have been articles suggesting revolving patient care around patient satisfaction
and patient experiences can increase health care costs and can result in inappropriate medical care
(Emergency Physicians Monthly, 2010).
I like your positive attitude towards learning, and that you are open to responses. In my opinion
those are the type of people that make the best learners. I myself have entered into the Master’s
program to open myself to more leaning. McEwen & Wills (20190 states that all members of an
organization should be educated and training on quality management. I know I have never been
educated on the topic unless I tried and failed on a project, “for a just man falleth seven times, and riseth
up again” (King James Version, 1611/2017, Proverbs 24:16). That is why I wanted to enter a program that
challenged me and educated me on things that I should know, and in the mean time I will keep falling
and keep rising up.
References
Dempsey, C. (2016, May 27). Patient satisfaction scores: Optimizing the patient and clinician
experience. Press Ganey. https://www.pressganey.com/about/news/patient-satisfaction-
scores-optimizing-the-patient-and-clinician-experience.
Emergency Physicians Monthly. (2010, September 22). 2+2=7? Seven things you may not know
about Press Ganey statistics: Emergency Physicians Monthly.
https://epmonthly.com/article/227-seven-things-you-may-not-know-about-press-gainey-
statistics/.
King James Bible. (2017). Thomas Nelson Publishing. (Original work published 1611)
McEwen, M., & Wills, E. M. (2019). Theoretical basis for nursing (7th edition). Wolters Kluwer.
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