Patient Outcomes and Nursing

Grant Proposal to Improve Quality of Care Nursing fatigue is one of the major factors that affect the quality of care provided by nurses to different patient populations. Studies have demonstrated that nursing fatigue is attributable to various factors including workload, illness, job frustration, and job stress. Nursing fatigue affect the quality of care provided by nurses through generating practice errors that hinder the delivery of high-quality care.

Therefore, one of the most important measures to enhance the quality of care for residents living in a nursing facility setting is dealing with nursing fatigue. In this case, this grant proposal is geared towards obtaining funding to improve the quality of care for residents living in a nursing facility setting in relation to nursing fatigue. Problem Statement Nurses in this nursing facility setting that serves residents are involved in providing round-the-clock care to patients.

These professionals provide a wide range of nursing services including care planning, medical care, and nutrition. Given the nature of their work and demands by patients, nurses and staff members at this nursing facility are increasingly vulnerable to nursing fatigue, which is a threat to patient safety and patient outcomes. Fatigue is a major concern and problem for nurses since it generates practice errors, which in turn hinder the delivery of high-quality care to patients.

Since nurses have direct contact with patients, fatigue-induced practice oversights or errors can create a series of improper care (Freeman, 2015). In essence, nursing fatigue is a major concern at this nursing facility setting because of its capability to hinder the delivery of high-quality care to residents. Description of the Program/Service The main goal of this program is to enhance the quality of care for residents living in a nursing facility setting when it comes to nursing fatigue.

This program has been developed on the premise that research findings have demonstrated the strong link nursing fatigue and practice errors, which in turn affect the quality of patient care. The program will focus on effectively addressing the root causes of nursing fatigue at this nursing facility setting for residents. Nursing fatigue is a major concern for this facility because the setting is a nursing home that offers its services to residents who don't need to be in a hospital yet they can't receive care while at home.

Therefore, addressing nursing fatigue will help improve the quality of care for this patient population by enabling nurses to provide high-quality care. The program is an on-site workplace intervention that addresses nursing fatigue through providing nurses a wide range of opportunities to achieve work/life balance and reduce physical and emotional strain. The program will include education and on-site counseling, de-briefing sessions, establishment of support groups for nurses, and art therapy.

These strategies will be accompanied by ensuring that nurses in this setting have flexible work schedules when providing round-the-clock patient care. In this case, nurses will be required to work in suitable shifts in order to prevent work overload and feeling overwhelmed. The on-site education programs will focus on basic emotional-support competencies during patient rounds and in the practice setting. On the other hand, on-site counseling will be provided by an advanced practice nurse and a counselor.

This program will focus on providing emotional support to nurses as well as providing any other necessary assistance to deal with fatigue. De-briefing sessions will be part of employee assistance programs that help identify beneficial and non-beneficial approaches to clinical practice. De-briefing will act as reviews and instructive sessions that help nurses develop new competencies in handling patient demands. Support groups for nurses will be established to provide peer support and consultant guidance in addressing fatigue and emotional issues relating to the delivery of high-quality patient care.

Art therapy will be integrated during working hours to help nurses deal with intensity of caring work by providing physical and mental breaks from caregiving. Comprehensive Clinical Profile of Residents Served As previously mentioned, the nursing facility setting is a nursing home that provides care services to patients who don't need to be in a hospital though they can't receive care services while at home. In order to meet patient demands, the facility has skilled nurses and nursing aides who provide round-the-clock care.

There are three major kinds of services provided by this nursing facility setting i.e. skilled nursing, long-term care, and rehabilitation. Long-term care services include mental healthcare services and care services relating to severe physical conditions. Skilled nursing services include medical care and its related services whereas rehabilitation services are provided to disabled patients or those with injuries. Given the different types of services provided by the facility, there are different kinds of residents it serves. These residents have different medical conditions and require different kinds of patient care services.

The first kind of residents served by this nursing facility setting is patients requiring short-term care. The needs of these residents vary because of different medical conditions though they require short-term care. This group of residents account for a huge percentage of patients served by the facility because most of the patients visit the nursing home for short-term care issues or conditions. While the facility does not operate like a hospital, it provides short-term care to residents in need of medical care and related services.

Some of the most common short-term care services offered to this category of residents include pharmaceutical services like administering of drugs, dietary services, and nursing services. The second category of residents served by this nursing facility is patients seeking for rehabilitation services. A significant portion of residents suffer injuries or have conditions that require rehabilitation services. Most of these patients requiring rehabilitation services are the elderly with mobility difficulties. As a result, these residents visit the facility to receive rehabilitation services for their conditions.

They receive specialized rehabilitative services based on their conditions in order to achieve and maintain optimal physical and psychological health. The third category of residents served by this nursing setting facility is patients with long-term and special healthcare needs. These needs range from severe mental illnesses to chronic diseases that require continuing care services. A huge percentage of residents requiring long-term and specialized care are the elderly who suffer from various chronic or mental illnesses like dementia and Alzheimer's disease.

Impact of the Program on the Residents The program is designed to help improve the quality of care provided to the different categories of residents served by the facility. The main way with which the program will improve the quality of care offered to these residents is by addressing nursing fatigue and its associated causes. Through addressing nursing fatigue, which is a threat to patient safety and outcome, the program will significantly impact residents served by lessening and/or eliminating practice errors.

This is an important aspect of the program because practice errors have hindered the ability of nurses to deliver high-quality care that meets patient needs and demands. Practice errors make it difficult for patients to achieve desired outcomes. By reducing practice errors, residents requiring short-term care, rehabilitation services, and long-term and specialized services will receive appropriate care, which improves quality of care and patient outcomes. Secondly, the program will contribute to improved quality of care for residents served through dealing with compassion fatigue.

Actually, it provides workplace interventions that address compassion fatigue and in turn contribute to improved quality of care (Boyle, 2011). Implementation Timeline The ability of this program to achieve its desired goals is dependent on how it's implemented effectively. In this case, the program will be implemented within a 12-month period because of the various strategies or steps required to make it successful. Once the program is implemented, periodic evaluation and improvement will be conducted on a quarterly basis i.e. once every three months.

The implementation timeline for this program is as follows.. Activity Timeframe Recruitment of Advanced Practice Nurse, Counselor, and Therapist 1 month Orientation to the Program 1 month Establishment of Support Groups for Nurses 1 month Conducting Leader and Nursing Staff Training 2 months Pilot Testing the Program 4 months Evaluation and Improvement of the.