Nursing Quality Improvement Strategies

Project 2: Promoting Health Care Quality

Section 4: Quality Improvement Strategies

Throughout this course, you have been considering the relationship between structure, process, and outcomes as it relates to health care quality. Looking at outcomes, alone, may not tell the “whole story.” For instance, if you are concerned with improving fall rates, evaluating the process—related activities or practices—can help you identify factors that contribute to outcomes and develop strategies for improving them.

For this section of your Course Project, you create a process map to examine a current process related to your quality improvement issue. You will use the results of the process mapping to redesign a process to help minimize or close the performance gap(s). As you proceed, keep in mind the importance of maintaining a patient-centered focus so the patient experience is not negatively affected by any changes in the process.

To prepare:

• Review the instructions provided in the Learning Resources for creating a process map.
• With your quality improvement issue in mind, as well as the other work you have completed on your Course Project thus far, think about how creating a process map could help you to better understand your quality improvement issue and redesign an associated process.
• Create a process map using Microsoft Word or PowerPoint.
• Refine the strategies for promoting systems-level change to minimize or close the performance gap(s) that you began to think about in Week 7. As part of this, identify a way to redesign at least one process based on your analysis of the process map that you have created.

To complete:

• Write a 2- to 3-page paper in which you describe quality improvement strategies that you selected related to your quality improvement issue.
• Finalize your process map, which will be submitted along with the paper.

Required Readings

Cookson, D., Read, C., Mukherjee, P., & Cooke, M. (2011). Improving the quality of emergency department care by removing waste using Lean Value Stream mapping. International Journal of Clinical Leadership, 17(1), 25–30.
Retrieved from the Walden Library databases.

This article demonstrates how a process map can be used to identify waste and promote efficiency, particularly in large departments.