Assignment Task:
#1. Quality Improvement in Nursing Practice
Nursing quality improvement (QI) is a systematic and evidence-based approach to improve patient care, safety, efficiency, and outcomes Quality improvement is important to my practice as a labor and delivery nurse because it ensures that maternal and neonatal care is provided to the highest standards possible to protect health. QI is about how we look at things, the inefficiencies, and how to squeeze them to ensure we meet the patient's needs. This entails working with colleagues, using data to make decisions, and even implementing evidence-based practice to address gaps in care. With my QI work, I promote a culture of excellence that reduces risk and enhances the birthing experience for patients and families.
Area Needing Quality Improvement
An area in my labor and delivery practice that needs quality improvement is the management of postpartum hemorrhage (PPH), which is an important cause of maternal morbidity. Despite standard protocols, I have seen visible delays in recognizing and responding to PPH because of inconsistent postpartum monitoring or teamwork failures. Delayed eversion of the uterus may also result in unfavorable effects, which include accelerated blood loss and emergency interventions. ("American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Postpartum Hemorrhage Protocol - ProQuest") By enhancing PPH management, affected persons' safety could be enhanced, complications reduced, and more timely interventions could be implemented. In the long run, better maternal fitness effects might arise in the labor and transport unit.
Stakeholders Involved
Addressing PPH involves multiple stakeholders who play essential roles in the QI process. At the frontlines are labor and delivery nurses, monitoring patients and making subsequent interventions. Clinical decision-making is led by obstetricians and midwives, with anesthesiologists supporting critical interventions such as blood transfusions. Hospital administrators are key in all decisions related to resource allocation and approval of protocol changes. Essential medications like uterotonics are ensured to be available by pharmacy staff. Quality assurance teams ensure compliance with standards, while patients and their families are among the most important stakeholders, given that their safety and experience drive improvement. By engaging all these groups, you have the collaborative approach to tackle PPH effectively.
Data Collection for Evaluation
Collecting targeted data is essential to evaluate and address the problem of PPH management. Key data points assess efficiency, including response time from PPH identification to intervention, e.g., administration of uterotonics. Chart audits can be used to track protocol adherence, capturing how reliably staff follow standardized PPH guidelines. The severity and impact of PPH cases can be measured by patient outcome data such as rates of blood transfusions, ICU admissions, or maternal complications. Monitoring staff training completion rates for PPH simulation programs can also identify preparedness. Finally, communication metrics that can be measured, like documented handoffs or errors or number of delays, can be analyzed to identify teamwork gaps. These data, obtained through chart reviews, incident reports, and staff surveys, will inform interventions to improve PPH management and patient safety. Need Assignment Help?
#2. Two resources I chose are MMHR (My Health My Resources) of Tarrant County and the YMCA. These were under adult obesity and suicides key indicators. The data for adult obesity for my county and state were 38%, and 36%. While the data for suicide was 13% for my county and 14% for my state. I chose these resources because the data for these factors were the highest in the health behaviors section, and I take classes at the YMCA.
According to the YMCA (n.d.)., they offer services like Youth & Teen orientation, Youth enrichment classes, wellness consultation to help with adults and children obesity, swim classes for all ages, and also offer financial assistance programs to provide access to YMCA programs and resources to those in need.
MMHR of Tarrant County has several outpatient centers that provide services to adults, young adults with mental health and substance use disorder, mental health disorders, behavioral health diagnosis, financial assistance for families (MMHR, n.d.). They also offer children and family services, like building parenting skills for parents, and support children dealing with crises. They serve expectant mothers, very young children from birth to age 6, and school-aged children up to their 18th birthday (MMHR, n.d.). They also offer free STI testing for teens and adults.
The role of the nurse in preventing adult obesity by providing compassionate, supportive care that allows patients reduce their risk of cardiovascular diseases (Preventive Cardiovascular Nurses Association (2024). Nurses can do this by ensuring patients have access to quality care, help patients address comorbidities of obesity, address bias, and address social determinants of health like access to high quality care, and equality Preventive Cardiovascular Nurses Association (2024). The roles of the nurse in suicide prevention include general education on risk factors and raising awareness, proper management of at-risk people, keeping suicidal patients under close observation, and monitoring the condition and progress of such patients (Saini et al., 2020).