Comprehensive Policy Proposal Nursing Essay Example
Healthcare policies are instrumental in quality service delivery in the health industry. Healthcare stakeholders collaborate with the government to formulate policies that improve healthcare delivery across the United States. Healthcare providers also devise organizational policies that align with Federal and State regulations to improve their performance. Quality healthcare services and patient satisfaction are major priorities for any healthcare organization’s improved health outcomes. For this reason, formulating patient care policies within healthcare organizations is instrumental in building healthier communities across the United States. This paper elucidates a quality improvement policy in a nursing home facility for the elderly. The essay will describe how the policy will improve the organization, the changes required to implement the policy, and policy advocacy strategies.(Comprehensive Policy Proposal Nursing Essay Example)
How will the policy improve the organization
The need for nursing home services continues to increase significantly as the median age and the number of Americans living with chronic conditions rise, not to mention the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, the United States government should ensure the accessibility of quality nursing home services to patients to prevent avoidable medical emergencies and acute care hospitalizations. However, nursing home encounters immense problems and barriers to quality care, such as lack of adequate food and water, increased pressure sores prevalence, increased falls, and lack of adequate care plans to address the patient’s needs.(Comprehensive Policy Proposal Nursing Essay Example)
Essentially, the quality improvement policy will be vital towards improving the performance of healthcare providers that promotes positive health outcomes and patient outcomes. The quality improvement policy will aid the nursing care facility to analyze its data and outcomes. Before implementing the policy, the nursing home will identify the areas that need improvement and determine the baseline outcomes. The facility will consider trends such as nutritional disorders, patient falls, and pressure sores to devise effective strategies to improve health outcomes.(Comprehensive Policy Proposal Nursing Essay Example)
Subsequently, the nursing facility will set measurable and concrete goals after identifying areas of improvement. In this case, the goals for quality improvement focus on safety to avoid medical errors or patient injuries. Secondly, the facility aims to offer patient-catered services that honor and respect patient preferences. Equitable service delivery will ensure accessibility to everyone regardless of race, gender, or ethnic background (Wallace et al., 2021). The facility also aims to offer timely and effective services to promote patient satisfaction.(Comprehensive Policy Proposal Nursing Essay Example)
Notably, the quality improvement policy will be instrumental in creating an executable plan to meet the set goals for nursing facilities effectively and timely. The achievable plan will allow the organization to set specific measures and strategies to improve quality. The policy will improve teamwork among the facility’s staff as they will be required to communicate the policy’s implementation strategies they will be employing or even potential challenges encountered.(Comprehensive Policy Proposal Nursing Essay Example)
Changes Necessary to Implement the Policy
Several changes will be necessary to improve the quality improvement policy in the nursing home facility. First, adopting a comprehensive care plan will be instrumental in implementing the policy. Nursing home residents’ individualized care plans document the needs of each patient while devising interventions necessary to address those needs (Nakrem et al., 2019). Therefore, healthcare providers meet patients’ needs without missing crucial elements in care. Secondly, care plans will allow the facility to assign responsibilities to the staff. The facility will assign specific responsibilities to the most qualified individuals among the staff.(Comprehensive Policy Proposal Nursing Essay Example)
Secondly, purposive hourly rounding strategies will prevent falls in the nursing home facility. Purposive hourly rounding improves the quality of care delivery and patient satisfaction in the facility by allowing the healthcare providers to routinely meet the patients’ needs, promote patient safety, and reduce the occurrence of adverse events by addressing the problems before they occur (Gavaller et al., 2019)(Comprehensive Policy Proposal Nursing Essay Example). Hourly rounding also aids in reducing the development of bedsores by promoting a frequent change of positions among the residents. Providing nutritious food and clean water will also be crucial for quality improvement. Lack of a balanced diet and unsafe/inadequate water cause health problems linked to poor health outcomes in the nursing home facility. A balanced diet and adequate clean water prevent nutritional and waterborne diseases.(Comprehensive Policy Proposal Nursing Essay Example)
The nursing home facility will organize a pressure management program to train the healthcare providers and their families on the basic principles of wound care. The program emphasizes the risk assessment protocol that enshrines interventions focusing on moisture management, nutrition, patient turning and repositioning, mobility, and pressure distribution (Haavisto et al., 2022). Effective wound care management reduces risks of infections or pressure sores, thus improving the quality of care and patient satisfaction.(Comprehensive Policy Proposal Nursing Essay Example)
How to Advocate for the Policy
Implementing the quality improvement policy requires the collaboration of all stakeholders in the nursing home facility. I will use lobbying as one of my strategies to advocate for the quality improvement policy. As the director of operations in the nursing home facility, I will organize face-to-face meetings with my colleague leaders and present the need for quality improvement in the facility. I will use the facility’s data, such as the rate of falls and pressure sores prevalence among the residents, to convince the leaders of the need for a quality improvement policy. I will also organize meetings with the patients/residents in the facility and their families to educate them on the significance of supporting the quality improvement project aimed at service quality and patient satisfaction.(Comprehensive Policy Proposal Nursing Essay Example)
Conclusion
Quality healthcare services and patient satisfaction are major priorities for any healthcare organization’s improved health outcomes. Formulating policies such as quality improvement within a nursing home facility is instrumental in building healthier communities across the United States. The quality improvement allows the facility to set goals while devising an executable plan to achieve the desired healthcare outcomes. Strategies such as devising comprehensive care plans, purposive hourly rounding, and providing adequate nutritious food and clean water are crucial to implementing the quality improvement policy. However, the healthcare organization should involve the necessary stakeholders to support and aid the implementation of such policies.(Comprehensive Policy Proposal Nursing Essay Example)
References
Gavaller, M., Gavaller, M., & Oh, H. (2019). Impact of Bed Alarm Removal and Implementation of Hourly Rounding to Reduce Falls. Journal of the American Medical Directors Association, 20(3), B19.
Haavisto, E., Kielo-Viljamaa, E., Hjerppe, A., Puukka, P., & Stolt, M. (2022). Consistent practices in pressure injury prevention at long-term care facilities. Advances in Skin & Wound Care, 35(3), 1-10.
Nakrem, S., Stensvik, G. T., Skjong, R. J., & Ostaszkiewicz, J. (2019). Staff experiences with implementing a case conferencing care model in nursing homes: a focus group study. BMC health services research, 19(1), 1-11.
Wallace, B., Varcoe, C., Holmes, C., Moosa-Mitha, M., Moor, G., Hudspith, M., & Craig, K. D. (2021). Towards health equity for people experiencing chronic pain and social marginalization. International Journal for Equity in Health, 20(1), 1-13.
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