Project of Improving Nurses Practice Paper Example

What is the current situation? What is the desired situation? How are you going to achieve it? (describe your change intervention).What is your aim? What are your 3- 5 SMART objective?

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Patients falls has prevalently occurred in the Rehabilitation Unit where I work as a head nurse. The scope of service for this unit is rehabilitation program for stroke patients and spinal cord injury patients. These two types of diagnosed patients are highly exposed to falls because of their weakness and body functioning. The current situation regarding falls in this unit considers as a critical situation. This leads to long hospitalization which has an effect on the patients safety, increasing the cost of treatment and reduces the quality of care (Trepanier & Hilsenbeck, 2014). According to Benner et al., (2002) the nurse's practice is considered as an important aspect of the quality of care. According to the authors, falls and injuries are adverse and therefore introduce an improvement program that focuses on developing strategies to reduce patients harm by directing the nurses practices. Our current situations data obtained from Jan 2016 to Aug 2016 in rehabilitation units reveal around 12 fall cases, two of them with injuries. Therefore, we are assuming that there is need for improvement in nurses practices. With this regard, the desired goal is to reduce the number of falls among hospitalized patients in male Rehabilitation Unit to improve their safety and quality of life.

One of the key aspects in patient falls as identified above is that it reduces the quality of care while increasing the amount of cost in the overall medical care. It is noted that patients who fall may at times injure themselves to the point of requiring an additional medical care (Haines et al., 2013). Moreover, these patients also increase their stay at the hospital which is also identified to have a significant impact on the patient recovery and family discomfort (Guo, 2014). Although several interventions have been adopted by this organization such as 24 - hour patient monitoring, more still needs to be done to avert the issue completely. As a matter of fact, patient fall in oncological units has been a center for discussion and research to develop more profound strategies that will mitigate the issue (Karisson et al., 2013). Bearing this in mind, the Writers facility thus needs to adopt some of the evidence based practices which have been proven to be effective in mitigating the issue at hand. Among other intervention strategies include the issue of training which impact the nurses with the necessary skills that will avert the issue.

Aim

My aim is improving nurses practice by providing a comprehensive fall prevention educational program that reduces the number of falls in the male rehabilitation unit.

SMART Objectives:

By March 2017, nurses will receive workshop and education sessions regarding the initial fall assessment which will develop accurate patient categorization practice.

By April 2017, nurses will participate in simulation lab which focuses on post fall management to enhance post fall practice.

By Jan 2017, admitted patients will receive educational activity regarding their conditions and the factors that cause fall. This is aimed at having safe short hospitalization.

By April 2017, nurses will be subjected to a test to ascertain an improvement in their skills.

Why is this change needed? Please discuss how you analyzed the need for change within your organization / department /team. Include as an appendix any tools you used to help you in this analysis.

Patient falls have been recognized as a significant problem in the healthcare sector in both rehabilitation and geriatric populations (Teasell et al., 2002). We need these changes because they will aid in determining the causes and factors which require improvement. Change in the current situation within the organization is needed, It is clear that the high incidence of falls among patients in the unit is related to the conditions within the unit such as, nurses not having sufficient knowledge on assessment tool that used to categorized patient upon admission, patients not receiving full education from nurses and nurses are busy with other patients (Hempel et al., 2013).

The changes are essential within the organization due to the number of falls reported from the unit and staff nurses each month reporting that more than five patients had fallen.

According to a study done in stroke rehabilitation unit in UK 2002, around 80 to 90% of patient injuries occur after these falls (Teasell et al., 2002 ).

Several different tools can be used in this project such as the SPO model (structure, process, and outcomes) which is an analysis tool to provide information about the need to change and evaluate the nurses practice. Also, quality improvement tool in this project is important (Ishikawa) diagram. This tool is used to identify the causes and their outcomes. Force Field Analysis is also another useful decision-making tool. It helps to make a decision by analyzing the positive forces for change as well as the negative ones. Through the help of these models, it is certain that improving the nurse's practice is essential in management of falls especially in the oncology units

Notably, nurses have been identified as the backbone of a medical facility performance. With this regard, improving the patient-nurse interaction and improving the nurse's skills is essential in enhancing the patient's quality outcome (Hempel et al., 2013). Essentially, improving the nurse's practice and skills has been identified as the core factor behind improving the rate of recovering. In organizations such as Writer which is characterized by aged healthcare providers, one of the major factors is that their knowledge has been out-dated. Considering the current trends in the nurse's practice such as technological implementation and use of new and improved approaches, some of the advantages of enhancing the nurse's practice include reducing the amount of time taken for hospitalization which in turn reduces the cost of medical care (Trepanier & Hilsenbeck, 2014). Another major advantage is that it reduces more injuries and the need to implement other interventions. Equally, it increases the healing rate of the patients thus considered a more effective strategy.

Discuss the organizational impact you hope the change will have and describe the expected outcome(s).

How will the organization benefit from the change? What difference will the change make to the organization? We are not seeking the impact upon the patient or patient safety, etcBut what impact will there be on the organization from enhanced treatment or enhanced patient safety, etc. You take a management perspective?

Improve nurses practice in the management of falls among male rehabilitation unit, increase the staff nurses skills and make them confident to handle the patients with high risk for fall. Through the educational program to the nurses, one of the major advantages is that it improves their skills and when applied to any organization, patient outcome quality is also enhanced (Trepanier & Hilsenbeck, 2014). With this regard, the key objective of this research is management of fall which will be achieved in due time.

Decrease the number of fall in the unit to 0%. Currently, the falls statistics stand at 5% which is above the recommended figure. As a result, this intervention will reduce the number of falls to minimum which in this case is 0

Decrease the length of hospitalization: Some patients get an injury from fall which led to long hospitalization. As identified in the discussion above, one of the core disadvantages of patient falls is that it increases their stay at the hospital since they have to be treated for the new injuries (Guo et al., 2014). Probably, they had healed to a given percentage. The wounds and conditions are reopened by the fall increasing their stay at the hospital

Decrease the cost of treatment for Patient who gets an injury from fall. As a result of requiring more intervention from the falls, the cost of medication and treatment which may have an effect on the financial aspect of the patient (Trepanier & Hilsenbeck, 2014)

Enhance the reputation of the organization. Every organization aims at improving their reputation whose result is improving the number of customers. With this regard, reducing the number of falls in the male unit will improve the reputation of the organization thus increasing the number of patients.

Discuss the potential threats or obstacles to implementing this change.

Resistance:

The process of undertaking the various changes in the organization may receive resistance from the stakeholders, hence, compromising its progress and effectiveness. For instance, various staff groups such as nurses, leaders, or physicians may resist the project making it hard to implement (Jorgensen, 2011 ). These threats can be solved by engaging staff from planning to implementation while explaining to them about the aim and importance of the intervention. Additionally, this will ensure they feel as part of the project.

Project is stopped from above:

The project may be stopped from higher levels hence shifting its major objectives. Halting may take place as a result of personal or public interests, hence, mak...