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QI improvement Initiative- Continue from where I have left
Quality improvement .
Introduction
Mental health determines the overall performance and productivity of nurses and other healthcare professionals. Nurses are required to have optimal mental states to maintain proper patient relationship, enhance patient safety, and maintain quality standards. With Covid-19 pandemic still a major concern in hospitals, the mental health status of nurses have dropped by 26% (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7830057/ ). Survey conducted among 3676 nurse respondents revealed that 60% of nurses have high emotional exhaustion, while 47% report post-traumatic stress disorder. 38% reported anxiety while 41% reported depression. These are significant figures that should not be ignored since they have a huge impact in quality improvement. As such, mental health should become a top priority in QI initiatives. In this paper, I will discuss improving nurse utilization of the available mental health services and resources offered at and through the organization as a QI initiative.
Project Title: Improving nurse utilization of the available mental health services and resources offered at and through the organization.
Proposed Project Team Members
Project manager: Oversee overall implementation of the QI initiative and report to the health administrator about progress.
Operations controller: Plan, execute, and review day-to-day activities of the team.
Training manager: Offer training about the activities to be done and the targeted objectives.
Therapist: Identifies and helps severe causes of nurses who already have mental health problems or those at high-risk using therapeutic techniques.
Data/records manager: Researches and documents all available resources and allocate them based on their utility.
Quality auditor: Monitors and evaluates the progresses made in relation to the set goals and milestones.
II. What is the team trying to accomplish?
1. Problem
One of the biggest problems with the lack participation in mental health programs offered to nursing employees is that many nurses are unaware that they exist. Additionally there is lack of sufficient programs available, which leaves nurses to struggle with the problems on their own, which unfortunately manifests in the quality of their output. With the close correlation between poor mental health and nurses’ susceptibility to medical errors, poor communication and declining quality-oriented services, it is right to let nurses know that these programs exist and make it easier for them to utilize them.
Project Description
The project aims to improve access and awareness of mental health programs for nurses. The objective is to improve the existing process and make it better so that more nurses can use the program. We expect to increase the number of nurses using the program by 90% in the next three months. Various deliverables will have to be achieved to realize these goals. First, we will evaluate the existing programs available within the organization in terms of their effectiveness and overall ease-of-use. We exclusively rely on evidence-based research to determine their effectiveness. The project will involve a pilot system, which consists of over 20 pediatric nurses before being enrolled over to the entire nursing population in the organization. This way, we will gauge its overall effectiveness and address potential issues before officially recommending it the entire organization.
2. Rationale
Nurses in the organization have complained of fatigue and demotivation due to numerous number of patients. For the past one year, 30% more nurses in the organization have enrolled themselves in therapy citing mild to severe depressive symptoms. Unfortunately, only 10% of the nurses who enrolled themselves in therapy tried to use available in-house programs.
3. Expected Outcomes and Benefits
This QI initiative will enable nurses to promptly seek help by utilizing available in-house programs to address their mental health issues. This will ensure that more nurses are at their optimal functioning capacity to effectively deliver quality services to patients……..Continue from here…….how will it reduce costs?
1. Expected Outcomes and Benefits
How will this improvement benefit the team, the organization, customers, and/or the community? What is the business impact, such as reduced costs or other financial benefits?
2. Aim Statement (This is already done)
What outcome are you hoping to achieve? Specify how good, for whom, and by when (a specific date). Write as a SMART goal.—The nursing staff will be aware of mental health offerings available to them by the institution and given detailed instructions on how become involved within the 1st week of offering these programs. Denis, this is the smart goal
III. How will the Team Know that a Change is an Improvement? (Worth 20 points)
When defining the project-level measures, provide operational definitions, which specify unambiguously how to derive each measure, and be sure to define numerators and denominators in measures such as percent or rates.
1. Outcome Measures
List at least two measures the team ultimately wants to affect as a result of this project.
2. Process Measures
List at least two measures that will tell the team if the system is performing as planned to affect the outcome measure.
3. Balancing Measures
List at least one measure that will tell you whether you are introducing problems elsewhere in the system.
IV. What Changes Can the Team Make that Will Result in Improvement? (Worth 25 points)
1. Initial Activities
Consider starting by exploring the process or system the team is trying to improve with tools such as interviews, direct observation, cause and effect diagrams, driver diagrams, and process maps/flowcharts.
2. Change Ideas
Describe two ideas the team has for initial tests of change (Plan-Do-Study-Act cycles).
3. Key Stakeholders
Whose input and support will this project require? How will the team engage these key stakeholders?
4. Barriers
Identify two barriers the team predicts to for success? How will the team overcome these barriers?
5. Boundaries
List any guidelines for the team, including project constraints, rules or procedures, technology considerations, what is out of scope, etc.
V. Summary Paragraph (Worth 10 points)
One concise paragraph to summarize assignment, no more than half a page.
References (Worth 10 points)
Minimum 6 appropriate supporting references.
One reference must be the IHI Quality Improvement Project Charter paper.
