Improvement Plan Tool Kit

Proper patient education is a core of patient safety, better health outcomes, and diminished readmission rates. In today’s complicated healthcare system, patients frequently leave the clinical setting without understanding their diagnoses, prescriptions and follow-up. This toolkit provides nurses and healthcare experts with twelve tools carefully selected, which offer evidence-based approaches to enhancing patient education to resolve this problem. These resources are divided into four themes that are important to the success of the safety improvement plan: communication techniques and health literacy, standardization of education practices, use of technology and patient education, and interprofessional collaboration and cultural competency: Improvement Plan Tool Kit.

Annotated Bibliography

Communication Techniques and Health Literacy

Dahl, A. M., & Hosler, A. S. (2020). Health literacy and emergency department utilization among community adults with mental and chronic health conditions. Advanced Emergency Nursing Journal, 42(4), 293–303. https://doi.org/10.1097/tme.0000000000000325

This research investigates the relationship between poor health literacy and high emergency department (ED) utilization among adults with mental illness, such as depression and anxiety. The findings indicate that low-literacy patients experience a substantial increase in ED utilization even after the adjustment of comorbidities and access to health care. This resource shows the significance of conducting health literacy assessments on populations at risk in minimizing unnecessary ED visits.

Short screening instruments like the Chew three-question screener can also be utilized by nurses in triage or intake to determine patients who need specific education. By doing so, they can tailor instructions and connect patients to appropriate follow-up care, directly supporting the safety initiative by reducing system strain and improving long-term outcomes for vulnerable groups.

Nantsupawat, A., Wichaikhum, O., Abhichartibutra, K., Kunaviktikul, W., Nurumal, M. S. B., & Poghosyan, L. (2020). Nurses’ knowledge of health literacy, communication techniques, and barriers to the implementation of health literacy programs: A cross‐sectional study. Nursing & Health Sciences, 22(3), 577–585. https://doi.org/10.1111/nhs.12698

This cross-sectional study of 1,697 nurses highlights major gaps in nurses’ knowledge and application of health literacy practices. Despite recognizing low literacy in their patients, few nurses had formal training in health literacy communication techniques. Identified barriers include a lack of assessment tools, time constraints, and insufficient educational resources. This resource is valuable for informing the design of nurse education and training initiatives that directly target these gaps.

Nurse educators and administrators can use this resource to justify structured health literacy programs and allocate resources accordingly. It is especially useful when developing interventions aimed at improving communication with vulnerable populations in community or outpatient settings.

Talevski, J., Wong Shee, A., Rasmussen, B., Kemp, G., & Beauchamp, A. (2020). Teach-back: A systematic review of implementation and impacts. PLOS ONE, 15(4). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0231350

This systematic review focuses on the usability and performance of the teach-back method in enhancing patient understanding, medication compliance, as well as patient safety. The article highlights the importance of teach-back as an organized approach to communication when nurses check whether a patient understands. Patients are asked to paraphrase important information. It is of special use when teaching low health-literate people coping with chronic concerns.

To reduce miscommunication and better engage patients, nurses can incorporate teach-back during discharge, medication oversight, or follow-ups. This resource is directly connected to the safety improvement initiative since it allows closing communication gaps and providing consistent, patient-centered education, thereby minimizing the likelihood of readmissions and adverse events.

Standardization of Education Practices

Bradley, D. C., Lannin, N. A., Clemson, L., Cameron, I. D., & Shepperd, S. (2022). Discharge planning from hospital. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 2022(2). https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.cd000313.pub6

This Cochrane review evaluates structured discharge planning and its impact on health outcomes, highlighting reductions in readmissions and improved patient satisfaction. It underscores the importance of written and verbal discharge protocols, emphasizing medication reconciliation, scheduled follow-ups, and patient involvement. Nurses play a key role in executing these plans by delivering standardized, clear education at the point of discharge.

This resource supports the safety improvement initiative by offering a proven framework for consistent discharge education across care teams. It is especially useful in transitional care settings and post-acute discharges, where communication breakdowns are common and pose significant risks to patient safety and continuity of care.

Perera, T., Grewal, E., Ghali, W. A., & Tang, K. L. (2022). Perceived discharge quality and associations with hospital readmissions and emergency department use: A prospective cohort study. BMJ Open Quality, 11(4), e001875. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjoq-2022-001875

This prospective cohort study investigates the relationship between patient-perceived discharge quality and subsequent hospital readmissions and emergency department use. The findings show that lower perceived discharge quality is significantly associated with increased utilization of healthcare services within 90 days post-discharge. The study emphasizes the value of clear, comprehensive, and patient-tailored education during discharge planning.

Nurses can apply this evidence by enhancing communication during discharge and using standardized scripts or checklists to cover essential information. This resource supports the safety improvement initiative by reinforcing the link between consistent, high-quality education and improved patient outcomes, particularly in acute care and medical-surgical units.

Pouresmail, Z., Nabavi, F. H., & Rassouli, M. (2023). The development of practice standards for patient education in nurse-led clinics: A mixed-method study. BioMed Central Nursing, 22(1), 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-023-01444-0

This mixed-methods study outlines the development of standardized practice guidelines for patient education in nurse-led clinics. Key components include needs assessment, individualized content, patient participation, and outcome evaluation. The resource emphasizes structured processes to ensure consistency, quality, and patient-centered care. Nurses can use the proposed standards to guide educational interventions across different clinical encounters, reducing variability and improving documentation.

This resource supports the safety initiative by promoting predictable and high-quality patient education processes that are measurable and reproducible. It is particularly applicable to outpatient and chronic disease management settings, where education consistency is essential for long-term adherence and patient empowerment.

Use of Technology in Patient Education

Dukhanin, V., Dy, S. M., Sharma, R., Vass, M., Zhang, A., Bass, E. B., & Rosen, M. (2023). Patient and family engagement. Making Healthcare Safer IV – NCBI Bookshelf. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK597671/

This rapid response report from AHRQ reviews strategies for enhancing patient and family engagement in healthcare, with an emphasis on digital and technological supports. It identifies electronic tools, such as patient portals, mobile applications, and interactive educational platforms, as effective means to improve communication, adherence, and satisfaction. Nurses can use these tools to deliver timely, customized educational content and facilitate real-time engagement with patients and caregivers. This resource directly supports the safety improvement initiative by promoting technology-enabled education as a scalable strategy to overcome literacy and comprehension barriers, particularly in transitional care and discharge planning contexts.

Kishik, S., Vinther, K. S., & Müller, S. D. (2021). mHealth in chronic disease management and patient empowerment: An exploratory investigation into patient-physician consultations (Preprint). Journal of Medical Internet Research, 23(6). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/351382227

This exploratory study investigates how mobile health (mHealth) applications affect communication and engagement during consultations for chronic disease management. The findings reveal that mHealth enhances transparency, supports shared decision-making, and empowers patients to take an active role in their care. For nurses, this resource emphasizes the value of integrating app-based tracking tools and education modules into care routines to reinforce teaching and support behavior change.

The study recommends personalized use of mHealth to complement in-person education. It is particularly valuable for outpatient and home-care settings, where ongoing engagement is essential. This resource supports the safety initiative by promoting continuous, tech-enabled education to reduce patient confusion and improve chronic condition self-management.

Pierce, J. H., Weir, C., Taft, T., Richards, W., II, McFarland, M. M., Kawamoto, K., Del Fiol, G., & Butler, J. M. (2025). Shared decision-making tools implemented in the electronic health record: Scoping review. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 27, e59956. https://doi.org/10.2196/59956

This scoping review examines the integration of shared decision-making (SDM) tools within electronic health records (EHRs). Findings indicate that embedding SDM resources, such as decision aids, educational modules, and preference questionnaires, into EHRs improves patient comprehension and involvement in care decisions. For nurses, these tools enhance real-time patient education and streamline workflow.

Nurses can guide patients through personalized content directly from the EHR during clinical encounters, reinforcing understanding and adherence. This resource supports the safety improvement initiative by demonstrating how technology can deliver consistent, patient-centered education efficiently, especially in time-limited inpatient or outpatient settings.

Interprofessional Collaboration and Safety Communication

Flaubert, J. L., Menestrel, S. L., Williams, D. R., & Wakefield, M. K. (2021, May 11). The role of nurses in improving health care access and quality. The Future of Nursing 2020-2030 – NCBI Bookshelf. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK573910/

This chapter from The Future of Nursing 2020-2030: Charting a Path to Achieve Health Equity highlights the central role nurses play in promoting interprofessional collaboration, patient advocacy, and improved care quality. It emphasizes nurses as communication bridges between patients and multidisciplinary teams, facilitating safer transitions and stronger patient outcomes. Nurses are encouraged to lead team-based communication, advocate for education standardization, and participate in policy-level safety initiatives.

This resource aligns with the safety improvement initiative by illustrating how nurse-led collaboration directly impacts health equity and safety. It is most applicable in inpatient, community health, and transitional care settings where integrated, team-based approaches are vital to delivering consistent, patient-centered education and reducing risks related to care fragmentation.

McLaney, E., Morassaei, S., Hughes, L., Davies, R., Campbell, M., & Prospero, L. D. (2022). A framework for interprofessional team collaboration in a hospital setting: Advancing team competencies and behaviours. Healthcare Management Forum, 35(2), 112–117. https://doi.org/10.1177/08404704211063584

This article outlines a hospital-based framework for interprofessional collaboration, detailing six core competencies that promote effective teamwork and patient safety. One key competency, shared decision-making, emphasizes collaborative patient education and the importance of coordinated communication. The framework encourages team members, including nurses, to clarify roles, set shared goals, and model respectful dialogue.

Nurses can apply this framework when facilitating discharge planning, conducting interdisciplinary rounds, or leading safety briefings. It supports the safety improvement initiative by promoting structured, team-based communication strategies that reduce fragmentation, improve education consistency, and ultimately enhance care quality across clinical settings.

Stubbe, D. (2020). Practicing cultural competence and cultural humility in the care of diverse patients. Focus, 18(1), 49–51. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.focus.20190041

Stubbe (2020) addresses the question of cultural competence and humility as a part of patient-centered care, stating that the possibilities of cultural and linguistic diversity considerations are among the keys to safe and effective treatment. In this article, the concept of cultural “competemility” is introduced, a concept that unites cultural awareness with the openness and humility mindset. As nurses, this method is crucial in enhancing trust, minimizing communication failures, and increasing interactions with diverse groups of patients.

The article provides practical advice on how to communicate, reflect on their own behavior, and establish rapport; this advice could lower the safety risks associated with misunderstandings and implicit prejudice. This article is significant in collaborative care in an interprofessional setting; it promotes the implementation of inclusive communication standards throughout the team. It can be particularly helpful in the instruction of culturally diverse populations or when cultural influences shape discharge planning in terms of compliance or understanding.

Conclusion

This improvement plan toolkit offers nurses and interdisciplinary teams crucial and evidence-based materials to assist with safer and effective patient education and care transitions. Clustered into four main topics, health literacy, standardized education practices, technology integration, and interprofessional collaboration, the chosen resources provide implementation support/recommendations on adopting uniform and patient-centric safety measures. Each entry touches the relevance, application, and value of the resource in reducing safety risks and improving the quality of care.

Through the advancement of these tools into daily practice, nurses will be placed in a position to influence sustainable change in the areas of communication, discharge planning, and teamwork. Overall, this toolkit will help establish a collaborative, knowledge-sharing, continuous improvement-driven, proactive, and safety-centered clinical culture.

References

Pouresmail, Z., Nabavi, F. H., & Rassouli, M. (2023). The development of practice standards for patient education in nurse-led clinics: a mixed-method study. BioMed Central Nursing, 22(1), 1–28. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-023-01444-0

Stubbe, D. (2020). Practicing cultural competence and cultural humility in the care of diverse patients. Focus, 18(1), 49–51. https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.focus.20190041

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Question

Assessment 4 Improvement Plan Tool Kit

For this assessment, you will develop a Word document or an online resource repository of at least 12 annotated professional or scholarly resources that you consider critical for the audience of your safety improvement plan to understand or implement to ensure the success of the plan.

Introduction
Communication in the healthcare environment consists of an information-sharing experience whether through oral or written messages (Chard & Makary, 2015). As healthcare organizations and nurses strive to create a culture of safety and quality care, the importance of interprofessional collaboration, the development of tool kits, and the use of wikis become more relevant and vital. In addition to the dissemination of information and evidence-based findings and the development of tool kits, continuous support for and availability of such resources are critical.

Among the most popular methods to promote ongoing dialogue and information sharing are blogs, wikis, websites, and social media. Nurses know how to support people in time of need or crisis and how to support one another in the workplace; wikis in particular enable nurses to continue that support beyond the work environment. Here they can be free to share their unique perspectives, educate others, and promote healthcare wellness at local and global levels (Kaminski, 2016).

You are encouraged to complete the Determining the Relevance and Usefulness of Resources activity prior to developing the repository. This activity will help you determine which resources or research will be most relevant to address a particular need. This may be useful as you consider how to explain the purpose and relevance of the resources you are assembling for your tool kit. The activity is for your own practice and self-assessment, and demonstrates course engagement.

References

Chard, R., & Makary, M. A. (2015). Transfer-of-care communication: Nursing best practices. AORN Journal, 102(4), 329–342.
Kaminski, J. (2016). Why all nurses can/should be authors. Canadian Journal of Nursing Informatics, 11(4), 1–7.

Overview
Nurses are often asked to implement processes, concepts, or practices—sometimes with little preparatory communication or education. One way to encourage sustainability of quality and process improvements is to assemble an accessible, user-friendly tool kit for knowledge and process documentation.

Creating a resource repository or tool kit is also an excellent way to follow up an education or in-service session, as it can help to reinforce attendees’ new knowledge as well as the understanding of its value. By practicing creating a simple online tool kit, you can develop valuable technology skills to improve your competence and efficacy. This technology is easy to use and resources are available to guide you.

For this assessment, build on the work done in your first three assessments and create an online tool kit or resource repository that will help the audience of your in-service understand the research behind your safety improvement plan pertaining to a specific patient safety issue and put the plan into action.

Preparation
Google Sites is recommended for this assessment; the tools are free to use and should offer you a blend of flexibility and simplicity as you create your online tool kit. Please note that this requires a Google account; use your Gmail or Google Docs login, or create an account following the directions under the “Create Account” menu. Visit Wiki Resources for help.

Instructions
Using Google Sites, assemble an online resource tool kit containing at least 12 annotated resources that you consider critical to the success of your safety improvement initiative. These resources should enable nurses and others to implement and maintain the safety improvement you have developed.

It is recommended that you focus on the three or four most critical categories or themes with respect to your safety improvement initiative. For example, if your initiative concerns improving workplace safety for practitioners, you might choose broad themes such as general organizational safety and quality best practices; environmental safety and quality risks; individual strategies to improve personal and team safety; and process best practices for reporting and improving environmental safety issues.

Following the recommended scheme, you would collect at least three resources on average for each of the four categories. ;Each resource listing should include the following:

An APA-formatted citation of the resource with a working link.
A description of the information, skills, or tools provided by the resource.
A brief explanation of how the resource can help nurses better understand or implement the safety improvement initiative.
A description of how nurses can use this resource and when its use may be appropriate.

Remember that you must make your site public so that your faculty can access it. Check out the Google Sites resources in the Wiki Resources above for more information.

Improvement Plan Tool Kit

Here is an example entry:

Ko, S., Hsieh, M., & Huang, R. (2023). Human error analysis and modeling of medication-related adverse events in Taiwan using the human factors analysis and classification system regression. Healthcare, 11(14), 2063. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11142063

Nurses have a crucial responsibility in preventing medication errors. They should follow the “five rights of medication” to reduce the risk of such errors. These include the “right patient,” “right medication,” “right time,” “right dose,” and “right documentation.” By understanding these rights, nurses can manage medication administration effectively and ensure patient safety.

Additionally, be sure that your plan addresses the following, which corresponds to the grading criteria in the rubric. Please study the rubric carefully so you understand what is needed for a distinguished score.

Identify necessary resources to support the implementation and sustainability of a safety improvement initiative.
Analyze the usefulness of resources to the role group responsible for implementing quality and safety improvements.
Analyze the value of resources to reduce patient safety risk.
Present reasons and relevant situations for use of resource tool kit by its target audience.
Communicate resource tool kit in a Word document or Google Sites in a clear, logically structured, and professional manner that partially follows APA style and formatting.

Example Assessment: You may use the following example to give you an idea of what a Proficient or higher rating on the scoring guide would look like but keep in mind that your tool kit will focus on promoting safety with the quality issue you selected in Assessment 1. Note that you do not have to submit your bibliography in addition to the Google Site; the example bibliography is merely for your reference.

Assessment 4 Example [PDF].

To submit your online tool kit assessment, paste the link to your Google Site in the assessment submission box.

Example Google Site: You may use the example Google Site found in Assessment 4: Improved Heparin Infusion Safety to give you an idea of what a Proficient or higher rating on the rubric would look like for this assessment but keep in mind that your tool kit will focus on promoting safety with the quality issue you selected in Assessment 1.

Note: If you experience technical or other challenges in completing this assessment, please contact your faculty member.

Additional Requirements

Number of resources: Your tool kit must include at least 12 professional or academically relevant resources that support the continued learning and implementation of knowledge and processes related to a safety improvement initiative. See the BSN Nursing Program Library Guide as needed.
APA format: Use proper APA formatting for in-text citations and each annotated resource. See the APA Module.

Competencies Measured
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and scoring guide criteria:

Competency 1: Analyze the elements of a successful quality improvement initiative.
- Analyze the usefulness of resources to the role group responsible for implementing quality and safety improvements.
- Present reasons and relevant situations for resource tool kit use by its target audience.
Competency 2: Analyze factors that lead to patient safety risks.
- Analyze the value of resources to reduce patient safety risk or improve quality.
Competency 3: Identify organizational interventions to promote patient safety.
- Identify necessary resources to support the implementation and continued sustainability of a safety improvement initiative pertaining to a specific patient safety issue.
Competency 5: Apply professional, scholarly, evidence-based strategies to communicate in a manner that supports safe and effective patient care.
- Communicate resource tool kit in a Word document or Google Sites in a clear, logically structured, and professional manner that partially follows APA style and formatting.

Scoring Guide

Use the scoring guide to understand how your assessment will be evaluated.

Improvement Plan Tool Kit

Improvement Plan Tool Kit

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