NURS 4021 WK 6 PRATICUM POWER POINT

Quality or Safety Issue in the United Healthcare System

Student’s Name

Institution

Course Instructor

Date

Safety Issue

The lack of knowledge of managing certain conditions reported by patients in a health care institution can pose greater safety hazard to both the affected and unaffected patients. This also compromises the quality of the services offered by an institution (Sullivan,2013).

One of the safety issues faced by United Health Care system is that practicing nurses lacked knowledge on Skin and wound care management. Because of this, they also did not know how to operate wound care equipment.

What Data did you use to Identify the Safety Issue?

Collection of data is important in the process of identifying a safety issue. Once data have been collected; evaluation is done so as to identify a safety issue and thereafter come up with ways of addressing the safety issue.

In this case, the data used to identify the safety issue was the number of nursing staff that participated in the educational activities involving skin care issues and wound care management. In addition, nurses filled questionnaires in the on skin and wound care management processes; skin and wound care management systems and equipments. Results from the evaluation of these questionnaires informed the conclusion that lack of proper knowledge of skin and wound care management was indeed a safety issue.

How will the Practicum Change Project Address the Safety Issue?

The Practicum Change Project will address this safety issue firstly by procurement of hospital equipment to be used for skin care and wound management. The institution’s procurement system would also be adjusted to involve the top management more in the process.

Secondly, setting up a system through which all nurses and their managers will report skin care and wound management cases accurately and on time. This will assist in the close monitoring and evaluation of these cases (Sullivan, 2013). Because of the knowledge gap that exists in this safety issue, the hospital management, through the change project will allocate resources to source for qualified staff. The qualified staff will train the nurses and their managers on the reporting system for some time and then exit after the knowledge gap has been bridged.

Conclusion

Finally, clear and constant communication will be maintained as this will be the most important step in addressing the safety matter. This will ensure that the management keeps abreast on matters of skin care and wound management. Thus, the nurses will be constantly reminded and sensitized on the requirements and importance of the issue to the success of the change project. Current wound care expertise encompasses numerous dressing-related skills including, treating the cause of the wound and addressing patient centered concerns to set the stage for local wound care, Properly assessing the wound and identifying the dressing requirements, selecting dressings based on their form and function for an individual wound’s need, and meeting setting-specific requirements for dressing change frequency and maintenance. There is always a safety risk if the nurse is not able to follow the above step, when wrong dressing changing material is used; when wound is not properly staged and poor wound information is provided to the patient. Dressings alone will not promote wound healing, unless the underlying cause(s) for the wound are also addressed (e.g. treatment of the wound cause, blood supply, nutrition, patient centered concerns, local wound care etc.). As the wound changes, the plan of care must change and dressing products may have to be changed and this is where effective communication

References

Course Text: Guide to the Code of Ethics for Nurses: Interpretation and Application Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

Sullivan, E. J. (2013). Effective leadership and management in nursing. (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River: Pearson Prentice Hall