Assessing the Problem: Quality, Safety, and Cost Considerations

In a 5 page written assessment, assess the effect of the patient, family, or population problem you've previously defined on the quality of care, patient safety, and costs to the system and individual. Plan to spend approximately 2 direct practicum hours exploring these aspects of the problem with the patient, family, or group you've chosen to work with and, if desired, consulting with subject matter and industry experts. Report on your experiences during your first two practicum hours.

Organizational data, such as readmission rates, hospital-acquired infections, falls, medication errors, staff satisfaction, serious safety events, and patient experience can be used to prioritize time, resources, and finances. Health care organizations and government agencies use benchmark data to compare the quality of organizational services and report the status of patient safety. Professional nurses are key to comprehensive data collection, reporting, and monitoring of metrics to improve quality and patient safety.

Demonstration of Proficiency

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the course competencies through the following assessment scoring guide criteria:

• Competency 3: Transform processes to improve quality, enhance patient safety, and reduce the cost of care. 

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  • Explain how a patient, family, or population problem impacts the quality of care, patient safety, and costs to the system and individual.
  • Propose strategies to improve the quality of care, enhance patient safety, and reduce costs to the system and individual.
• Competency 5: Analyze the impact of health policy on quality and cost of care. 

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  • Explain how state board nursing practice standards and/or organizational or governmental policies can affect a patient, family, or population problem’s impact on the quality of care, patient safety, and costs to the system and individual.
• Competency 8: Integrate professional standards and values into practice. 

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  • Use paraphrasing and summarization to represent ideas from external sources.
  • Apply APA style and formatting to scholarly writing.

Preparation

In this assessment, you’ll assess the effect of the health problem you’ve defined on the quality of care, patient safety, and costs to the system and individual. Plan to spend at least 2 direct practicum hours working with the same patient, family, or group. During this time, you may also choose to consult with subject matter and industry experts.

To prepare for the assessment:

• Review the assessment instructions and scoring guide to ensure that you understand the work you will be asked to complete and how it will be assessed.
• Conduct research of the scholarly and professional literature to inform your assessment and meet scholarly expectations for supporting evidence.
• Review practicum focus sheet which provides guidance for conducting this portion of your practicum.

Practicum Focus Sheet Assessment 2

Note: Expect to spend at least 2 hours with the patient, family, or group you’ll be working with during this portion of your practicum, exploring issues of patient safety, quality, and costs associated with the health problem you’ve defined. This includes time spent in consultation with subject matter or industry experts. You’ll report on the results of this work as part of your next assessment.

For this portion of your practicum, discuss, in depth, how the problem will affect patient safety, quality of care, and costs. Consider the following questions to help guide your exploration of quality, safety, and costs and to make the most of your time:

• Has the patient, family or group experienced any serious safety events because of the problem?
• How many times have they gone to the emergency department (ED)?
• How many times have they been hospitalized?
• What is the frequency of ED visits or hospitalizations?
• How many medications are needed to manage the problem?
• Does insurance pay for these medications?
• Have the medications caused any side effects?
• How often are doctors’ visits or other therapies needed?
• Does insurance pay for these visits or treatments?

Instructions

Complete this assessment in two parts.

Part 1

Assess the effect of the patient, family, or population problem you defined in the previous assessment on the quality of care, patient safety, and costs to the system and individual. Plan to spend at least 2 practicum hours exploring these aspects of the problem with the patient, family, or group. During this time, you may also consult with subject matter and industry experts of your choice. Use the practicum focus sheet provided for this assessment to guide your work and interpersonal interactions.

Part 2

Report on your experiences during your first 2 practicum hours, including how you presented your ideas about the health problem to the patient, family, or group.

• Whom did you meet with? 

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  • What did you learn from them?
• Comment on the evidence-based practice (EBP) documents or websites you reviewed. 

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  • What did you learn from that review?
• Share the process and experience of exploring the influence of leadership, collaboration, communication, change management, and policy on the problem. 

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  • What barriers, if any, did you encounter when presenting the problem to the patient, family, or group? 

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    • Did the patient, family, or group agree with you about the presence of the problem and its significance and relevance?
    • What leadership, communication, collaboration, or change management skills did you employ during your interactions to overcome these barriers or change the patient’s, family’s, or group’s thinking about the problem (for example, creating a sense of urgency based on data or policy requirements)?
  • What changes, if any, did you make to your definition of the problem, based on your discussions?
  • What might you have done differently?

Requirements

The assessment requirements, outlined below, correspond to the scoring guide criteria, so be sure to address each main point. Read the performance-level descriptions for each criterion to see how your work will be assessed. In addition, note the additional requirements for document format and length and for supporting evidence.

• Explain how the patient, family, or population problem impacts the quality of care, patient safety, and costs to the system and individual. 

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  • Cite evidence that supports the stated impact.
  • Note whether the supporting evidence is consistent with what you see in your nursing practice.
• Explain how state board nursing practice standards and/or organizational or governmental policies can affect the problem’s impact on the quality of care, patient safety, and costs to the system and individual. 

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  • Describe research that has tested the effectiveness of these standards and/or policies in addressing care quality, patient safety, and costs to the system and individual.
  • Explain how these standards and/or policies will guide your actions in addressing care quality, patient safety, and costs to the system and individual.
  • Describe the effects of local, state, and federal policies or legislation on your nursing scope of practice, within the context of care quality, patient safety, and cost to the system and individual.
• Propose strategies to improve the quality of care, enhance patient safety, and reduce costs to the system and individual. 

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  • Discuss research on the effectiveness of these strategies in addressing care quality, patient safety, and costs to the system and individual.
  • Identify relevant and available sources of benchmark data on care quality, patient safety, and costs to the system and individual.
• Use paraphrasing and summarization to represent ideas from external sources.
• Apply APA style and formatting to scholarly writing.

Additional Requirements

• Format: Format your paper using APA style. Be sure to include: 

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  • A title page and reference page. An abstract is not required.
  • A running head on all pages.
  • Appropriate section headings.
• Length: Your paper should be approximately 5 pages in length, not including the reference page.
• Supporting evidence: Cite at least 5 sources of scholarly or professional evidence that support your central ideas. Resources should be no more than five years old. Provide in-text citations and references in APA format.
• Proofreading: Proofread your paper, before you submit it, to minimize errors that could distract readers and make it more difficult for them to focus on its substance.