Nursing Quality Indicators

As patient safety and delivery of quality care take center place in healthcare, nursing-quality indicators are an important element in healthcare delivery. Nursing-quality indicators such as pressure ulcers, hospital-acquired infections, falls, and medical administration among others reflect patient outcomes influenced by nursing care (Connolly & Wright, 2017). Consistently, applying nursing-quality indicators to the case study, we identify ways in which nursing-quality indicators can help identify issues that may affect patient care, analyze how hospital data specific nursing-quality indicators can advance the quality of patient care in the hospital, and identify specific ways to resolve an ethical issue in this scenario.

1. Understanding of Nursing Quality Indicators

Drawing upon nursing-quality indicators and applying them on the case study, it is evident that the nurses in the case of Mr. J are not aware of nursing-quality indicators or the indicators have not been implemented in the hospital. Accordingly, applying nursing-quality indicators to the case of Mr. J would have helped nurses work towards making a priority patient satisfaction, patient safety, and find ways to resolve the impact of the physical patients on the patient. For instance, when the hospital served Mr. J with chopped pork meat, the nurse should have handled the issue better such as issuing an apology, instead of making it look like a small matter.

2. Advancing Quality Patient Care

Nursing-quality indicators are units of measurement used to measure the quality of patient care and service support in the delivery of healthcare. Health indicators identify and call attention to specific result-oriented issues to help improve the quality of care and enhance patient safety (Amaro, Prado, Silveira, & Siman, 2015). In light of this, data collected on specific quality indicators have the potential to influence subsequent adjustments and improvement of healthcare delivery, patient outcomes, and better management of healthcare organizations (Amaro et al., 2015). Additionally, data collected from nursing-quality indicators can be used to analyze and understand specific situations and use this information to make better decisions. Amaro et al. also identified that this data can be used to identify and understand difficulties encountered by nurses during the delivery of care and come up with appropriate solutions. For instance, considering the case of Mr. J. data collected from nursing indicators can be used to analyze the issue of patient satisfaction and come up with appropriate solutions to enhance patient satisfaction.

3. Resolution of Ethical Issues

Healthcare organizations face a myriad of moral and ethical issues such as clinical efficacy, conflicting social values, and patient rights among others. When faced with ethical issues, it is important for healthcare organizations and healthcare providers to deal with them in an appropriate way before they escalate and affect the delivery of care. Considering Mr. J’s case study, it is important to note that the healthcare organization is in a rural area where people are likely to develop familiarity. In this case, when resolving ethical issues it is important to consider all parties involved such as administrators, physicians, nurses, and patients among others. Besides, when resolving the ethical issues, the nursing shift supervisor should be careful not to show any favoritism towards any party.

Within healthcare organizations, nursing-quality indicators play an integral role in the delivery of quality care, patient safety, and patient outcomes. Understanding and applying nursing-quality indicators is critical to address issues affecting the delivery of care in the organization. Evidently, nursing-quality indicators data is vital in improving care delivery. Additionally, when faced with ethical issues, it is important to understand and adopt the best way to resolve them.

References

Amaro, M. O. F., Prado, J. P. P., Silveira, T. V. L., & Siman, A. G. (2015). The importance of using quality indicators in nursing care. Revista Gaúcha De Enfermagem, 36(2), 82-88.

Connolly, D., & Wright, F. (January 01, 2017). The nursing quality indicator framework tool. International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, 30(7), 603-616.