NURS 8302 Discussion Identifying Practice Gaps for Quality Improvement
How to Identify a Practice Gap
Quality improvement gaps are identified in the author’s organization by events, monthly and quarterly matrix, and adverse events that might occur that lead to a root-cause analysis (RCA). Leadership is made aware of the quality improvement gaps chair of the committees who present the monthly or quarterly findings to leadership. A gap in practice is a discrepancy between wanted outcomes and the obtained outcomes. A gap in practice is an opportunity to make changes to improve. One of the quality improvement gaps that currently impact healthcare is compassion fatigue (CF) and burnout (BO).
Quality Improvement Practice Gap
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In a demanding, complex work environment, compassion fatigue (CF) and burnout (BO) are familiar among healthcare professionals. Compassion, as defined by Dinc and Ekinci (2019) as “A deep awareness of someone’s suffering and acting or feeling of motivated to help” (p.193). Caring is synonymous with nursing. As a well-known pioneer in nursing, Florence Nightingale provided care to patients in a compassionate, caring manner (Charlie, 2020). According to Dinc and Ekinci (2019), compassion is an individual’s attitude, attentiveness, and sensitivity. In contrast, compassion fatigue (CF) is defined as the lack of caring due to emotional and physical exhaustion, stress, and uncertainty (Dinc&Ekinci, 2019). During the author’s frontline experience, she was able to identify these gaps in practice.
Healthcare professionals such as nurses seek to care for others while lacking self-care. Nurses in healthcare are at high risk for CF, as they are frequently exposed to traumatic, emotional, and stressful events. Nurses are overwhelmed, emotionally and physically exhausted, and fearful of lack of supplies, lack of staff, and lack self-care and enjoyment of their purpose; unfortunately, CF leads to healthcare professionals leaving their profession(Fukumori et al., 2020; Watts & Thorne-Odem, 2020). It is essential to identify the causation and mitigate the issues, reduce staff resignations, and improve retention, patient and staff satisfaction, outcomes. The author performed a literature review to help define and develop the proposed research question: “Is there evidence that suggests education intervention towards compassion fatigue compared to no education, increases knowledge and awareness of compassion fatigue amongst healthcare professionals?”
Two Types of Tools/Methods to Address the Quality Improvement Gap
The two types of tools/methods the author will use to address the quality improvement gap are Lean Six Sigma and Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA). Lean Six Sigma is a hybrid of two methodologies the work together well (Catalyst, 2018; Sipes, 2020). This hybrid method finds ways to remove the waste while improving processes to maintain consistency. Lean Six Sigma works well together to enhance the quality of care and improve outcomes. They are different in their methods but work well together. Six Sigma is metric-driven, while lean focuses on eliminating waste. Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) is another tool to address the issue of a quality improvement practice gap. The PDSA four phases work together to improve quality, patient safety, care, and patient satisfaction, which focuses on translating ideas into actions to improve processes (Slootmans, 2018). By utilizing these methods, the author will address the practice gap, improve patient outcomes, and enhance communication while making changes using evidence-best practice and mentoring.
References
Catalyst, N. (2018). “What is lean healthcare?” NEJM Catalyst. http://catalyst.nejm.org/doi/full/10/1056/CAT.18.0193
Dinc, S., &Ekinci, M. (2019). Turkish adaptation, validity and reliability of compassion fatigue short scale. PsikiyatrideGuncelYaklasimlar, 11, 192-202
Fukumori, T., Miyazaki, A., Takaba, C., Taniguchi, S., &Asai, M. (2020). Traumatic events among cancer patients that lead to compassion fatigue in nurses: A qualitative study. J Pain Symptom Manage, 59(2), 254-260. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2019.09.026
Slootmans, S. (2018). Project Management and PDSA-Based Projects (pp. 175–198). https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-71042-6_8 Watts, S. A., & Thorne-Odem, S. (2020). Nursing yourself away from burnout and compassion fatigue to resilience and joy at work. Nursing Made Incredibly Easy!, 18(6), 6-8. https://doi.org/10.1097/01.NME.0000717684.70292.43
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