Examining Safety and Quality in Healthcare- Evidence-Based Solutions and the Role of Nurses and Stakeholders
Healthcare systems are complex and face multiple risks to patient safety. Delays in recognizing patient condition deterioration are a major area of concern in the subject of patient safety. This paper analyses causes for delays in response, discusses recommendations on interventions for enhancing safety, explains how nurses can be effective coordinators in safe care delivery, and looks at the actors in improving safety.
Factors Leading to Delayed Response
Several factors contribute to delayed responses to patient deterioration, primarily revolving around communication breakdowns, inadequate staffing, lack of training, and workflow inefficiencies. Problems such as misunderstandings are unmanageable since communication plays a vital role in healthcare facilities (Tiwary et al., 2019). The failure to communicate between members of the health care team means that important information may be missed or not passed quickly enough to allow for intervention. These problems are aggravated by the lack of well-defined communication conventions, which only create further troubles.
Another important contributing factor is understaffing. Patient safety, therefore, requires a sufficiently adequate number of nurses to address the patient’s needs. According to Nantsupawat et al. (2021), lack of adequate staffing deceptively challenges the capacity of the nurses to manage all the patients adequately and consequently attend to all the changes in status that the patients may experience. Fatigued workers are inclined to make mistakes, and thus the health of the patient is even more at risk.
The lack of training is also a reason for the delay in response time. Nurses and other health care professionals need to be well trained on how to identify signs of patient decline and how to implement rapid response plans. They include inadequate follow-up training and simulation experiences to be ready to intervene when emergencies are present.
Suboptimal workflow patterns additionally impede timely recognition and management of a patient’s clinical decline. Lack of proper work organization and time constraints that hinder functioning may result in delayed diagnosis and treatment. Optimizing such processes is critical to enabling healthcare providers to respond quickly and appropriately.
Evidence-Based Solutions to Improve Patient Safety
The problem of delayed response can be solved through the system’s utilization of the best practices and solutions, which in this case happens to be critical for improving patient safety and decreasing expenses. Improved communication is always an effective first step. Smart communication frameworks, including SBAR (Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation), are beneficial in enhancing effective and accurate word of mouth, as indicated by Etemadifar et al. (2021). Using the SBAR format minimizes the risks of communication breakdown and makes it possible to convey any crucial information without delay.
Other very important practices include staffing or having enough qualified personnel in an organization. Healthcare facilities must decide on staff ratios to avoid compromising the response time to patient care needs. This entails having adequate staffing levels and ensuring that shift working does not tire out the staff. A sufficient number of staff guarantees that nurses do not become overworked and can promptly identify and address patients’ requirements.
Studies by Kim et al. (2023) point out that education, including training and simulation, is requisite in the identification of early signs of patient deterioration and the utilization of rapid response interventions by nurses. Such should be incorporated in normal training drills to make sure that all staff are ready to handle any eventuality. Simulation training enables the development and sustenance of the knowledge required when clinical judgments demand swift and accurate intervention.
Efficient working procedures are another important solution. Improving the flow of processes to minimize redundancy can also result in faster responses. This is achieved through processes such as expanding ways of accessing medical opinions, guaranteeing access to required tools and drugs, and minimizing paperwork for healthcare practitioners. Integrated processes allow healthcare teams to attend to patients’ needs more rapidly and effectively.
Technology has also been proven to help increase patient safety. Telehealth, electronic health records, and clinical decision support systems assist in monitoring a given patient’s state and informing relevant personnel of any adverse change (Haleem et al., 2021). Some technological instruments can thus provide real-time information or alerts, allowing for timely action to be taken.
Role of Nurses in Coordinating Care
Coordinated care by nurses is a critical part of patient safety and cost control. They are not only involved in the direct care of patients but are also vested with various aspects of care management and information exchange. One of the key roles of nursing is constant surveillance of patients’ conditions to promptly assess new changes, as mentioned by Karam et al. (2021). This strategy can help avoid adverse outcomes and enhance patient care since necessary actions will be commenced promptly.
Nurses also advocate for their clients by communicating important information to other care team members (Karam et al., 2021). They work closely with other healthcare professionals to ensure appropriate and prompt action is taken. Moreover, improving the level of patients’ and their families’ awareness regarding the identification of worsening signs and timely reporting can also improve safety. These include teaching how to check vital signs, signs that signify that one needs to seek further medical attention, and the care plan.
Interactions with other healthcare professionals, including physicians, pharmacists, and respiratory therapists, are important in providing the right care at the right time. In some cases, nurses are considered case managers and are responsible for coordinating the efforts of all the team members on how best to manage the patients (Karam et al., 2021). Besides, nurses can reduce interruptions during crucial activities by creating designated areas for medication, which should not be interfered with by visitors, and controlling visiting hours. Establishing order and orderliness enhances safety because nurses can effectively do their work without interference.
Stakeholders in Quality Improvement
Engaging the appropriate stakeholders is essential for safety improvement activities. Many individuals are involved in improving quality, and they all bring various approaches and support to the project. Physicians, nurses, and other direct caregivers are involved in delivering care to patients and, therefore, are vital in implementing and maintaining quality improvement processes (Laurisz et al., 2023). Most importantly, they can provide first-hand observation and a chance to trace out real problems and effective solutions.
The hospital’s top management has a critical responsibility of ensuring that the resources required to support safety efforts are availed. This entails staffing, financial support for training sessions and equipment, and developing positive safety policies. Other stakeholders include hospital administrators, who must influence and direct quality improvement initiatives in ways that are consistent with the health facility’s objectives and standards.
Patients and families are also important stakeholders involved in the provision of health care (Laurisz et al., 2023). The other essential strategy is to involve patients and their families in safety initiatives since they can bring ideas and also create awareness. Patients and families can give an insight into how care could be enhanced or enhance ideas for patient-centered approaches towards reducing delayed response to deterioration. Engaging patients and families in safety efforts could also improve safety, as well as provider-patient and provider–family relationships.
Organizational structures require specific quality improvement teams to assume the roles of reviewing the data, looking for opportunities for improvement, and addressing relevant interventions to increase patient safety. Such teams can comprise members drawn from different fields in the healthcare organization to improve the quality of their organization. They are groups of healthcare professionals who plan, execute, and assess changes that address issues that affect the delivery of competent and safe care to patients.
Conclusion
The solution to avoid delayed responses to such patients entails using effective communication, hiring competent staff, training, redesigning work processes, and embracing technology. As the main actors in patient care, nurses are involved in assessment, information exchange, teaching, and cooperation. Stakeholder involvement will encompass many professionals, including healthcare providers, managers, patients, and quality improvement teams. Thus, the application of evidence-based care changes and practices enables healthcare organizations to improve patient safety, decrease costs, and, most importantly, promote positive patient outcomes.
References
Etemadifar, S., Sedighi, Z., Sedehi, M., & Masoudi, R. (2021). The effect of situation, background, assessment, recommendation-based safety program on patient safety culture in intensive care unit nurses. Journal of Education and Health Promotion, 10(1), 422. https://doi.org/10.4103/jehp.jehp_1273_20
Haleem, A., Javaid, M., Singh, R. P., & Suman, R. (2021). Telemedicine for healthcare: Capabilities, features, barriers, and applications. Sensors International, 2(2). NCBI. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sintl.2021.100117
Karam, M., Chouinard, M.-C., Poitras, M.-E., Couturier, Y., Vedel, I., Grgurevic, N., & Hudon, C. (2021). Nursing Care Coordination for Patients with Complex Needs in Primary healthcare: a Scoping Review. International Journal of Integrated Care, 21(1), 1–21. https://doi.org/10.5334/ijic.5518
Kim, J., Jones, L., Terry, D., & Connell, C. J. (2023). An Exploration of Nurses’ Experience Following a Face-to-Face or Web-Based Intervention on Patient Deterioration. Healthcare, 11(24), 3112–3112. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11243112
Laurisz, N., Ćwiklicki, M., Żabiński, M., Canestrino, R., & Magliocca, P. (2023). The stakeholders’ involvement in healthcare 4.0 services provision: The perspective of co-creation. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(3), 2416. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20032416
Nantsupawat, A., Poghosyan, L., Wichaikhum, O., Kunaviktikul, W., Fang, Y., Kueakomoldej, S., Thienthong, H., & Turale, S. (2021). Nurse staffing, missed care, quality of care and adverse events: A cross‐sectional study. Journal of Nursing Management, 30(2), 447–454. https://doi.org/10.1111/jonm.13501
Tiwary, A., Rimal, A., Paudyal, B., Sigdel, K. R., & Basnyat, B. (2019). Poor communication by health care professionals may lead to life-threatening complications: Examples from two case reports. Wellcome Open Research, 4(1), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.15042.1
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Question 
For this assessment, you will develop a 3–5 page paper that examines a safety quality issue in a health care setting.
Examining Safety and Quality in Healthcare- Evidence-Based Solutions and the Role of Nurses and Stakeholders
You will analyze the issue and examine potential evidence-based and best-practice solutions from the literature as well as the role of nurses and other stakeholders in addressing the issue.