Evaluating Quality Patient Outcome

The National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQI) is one such database that provides information that helps registered nurse (RN) in evaluating patient outcomes, as it looks at quality improvement activities. Moreover, the database looks at the “relationship between nurse staffing and patient outcomes” by looking at certain units such as psychiatric, critical care, medical or surgical, rehabilitation, step down, and pediatric (NDNQI, 2010b). The overuse, underuse, and or even misuse of specific inpatient procedure exemplify data on poor healthcare quality. Since physicians do not have ready access to data needed in the caring for the patient, quality problems cannot be eliminated in an organization. The delivery systems for health practitioners have not been helpful in assisting them to provide error-free care. This has made healthcare practitioners not having relevant and timely information concerning the care of their patients.
Quality improvement can be viewed as a daily task in patient care by incorporating the following principles: QI will need to work as systems and processes; patients should be the focus of the program; focus is given to being part of the team, and use of data is important. The toolkit of working as systems and processes entails the recognition of both resources and activities carried out be addressed together to ensure the quality of care is improved for the patients. The focus on patients will facilitate the meeting of their needs and expectations, which is the mission of most healthcare organizations (HRSA, 2011). QI is achieved through teams. Therefore, knowledge, experience, skills, and perspectives are harnessed from different team members makes the organization have lasting improvements and success. For QI, data has been displayed as its cornerstone because it gives a description of the current system in the organization; what happens when change is applied in the organization; and successful performance is also documented.
Continuous quality improvement activities are always associated with the change because it helps an organization in understanding its strengths and weaknesses. This is good for the organization because it helps them in assessing their readiness to change. This increases its ability to support the goals identified under QI. The commitment of the organization to QI, the knowledge of its leaders about its QI principles, channels of communication, and teamwork are some of the fundamental traits considered to achieve success (HRSA, 2011).
Functional nursing care delivery model is the least effective because it may be fragmented. It results in high possibilities of overlooking the priority needs of patients. Moreover, some of the patients feel confused due to the many different care providers meeting their needs and expectations. Lastly, caregivers may also feel unchallenged when performing their duties due to the repetitive function present.
Concerning the different types of settings and patient populations, it is wise to use different models because they will work best in meeting the needs and expectations of their patients and community. It is advisable not to rely on one type of model because this may limit the healthcare practitioner from providing the client with quality health care. Moreover, this may result in not meeting the needs and expectations of their patients and communities because family members may be left out in the treatment program yet they give support to the ailing individuals.
In my current workplace, we utilize the primary or total nursing care delivery model, which is very effective regarding providing quality care to patients in the facility. This model has managed to use an all-RN staff when providing its patients with direct care. Moreover, an RN is given the opportunity to care for the same patient throughout their recovering process, which is good because this culminates down to understanding the needs of their patients. In this model, autonomy has been maintained at high degrees and clear lines of responsibility and accountability is evident. Therefore, if a change needs to be executed, the other model to consider will be the magnet hospital environment or shared governance, as it allows decision-making to be shared by managers and RNs.

References
Health Resources and Services Administration, HRSA. (2011, April). Quality improvement. Retrieved from https://www.hrsa.gov/sites/default/files/quality/toolbox/508pdfs/qualityimprovement.pdf
National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQI). (2010b). NDNQI: Transforming data into quality care [brochure] (2010). Retrieved from https://www.nursingquality.org/