Quality, Safety, and Cost Considerations

Assessing the Problem: Quality, Safety, and Cost Considerations

In a 5 page written assessment, assess the effect of the patient, family, or population
problem you’ve previously defined on the quality of care, patient safety, and costs to the
system and individual. Plan to spend approximately 2 direct practicum hours exploring
these aspects of the problem with the patient, family, or group you’ve chosen to work
with and, if desired, consulting with subject matter and industry experts.

Introduction:

Organizational data, such as readmission rates, hospital-acquired infections, falls,
medication errors, staff satisfaction, serious safety events, and patient experience can
be used to prioritize time, resources, and finances. Health care organizations and
government agencies use benchmark data to compare the quality of organizational
services and report the status of patient safety. Professional nurses are key to
comprehensive data collection, reporting, and monitoring of metrics to improve quality
and patient safety.

Instruction:

Complete this assessment in two parts.

Part 1

Assess the effect of the patient, family, or population problem you defined in the
previous assessment on the quality of care, patient safety, and costs to the system and
individual. Plan to spend at least 2 practicum hours exploring these aspects of the
problem with the patient, family, or group. During this time, you may also consult with
subject matter and industry experts of your choice. Use the Practicum Focus Sheet
provided for this assessment to guide your work and interpersonal interactions.

Part 2

Report on your experiences during your first 2 practicum hours, including how you
presented your ideas about the health problem to the patient, family, or group.

● Whom did you meet with?
○ What did you learn from them?

● Comment on the evidence-based practice (EBP) documents or websites
you reviewed.

○ What did you learn from that review?
● Share the process and experience of exploring the influence of leadership,

collaboration, communication, change management, and policy on the
problem.

○ What barriers, if any, did you encounter when presenting the
problem to the patient, family, or group?

■ Did the patient, family, or group agree with you
about the presence of the problem and its
significance and relevance?

■ What leadership, communication, collaboration, or
change management skills did you employ during
your interactions to overcome these barriers or
change the patient’s, family’s, or group’s thinking
about the problem (for example, creating a sense
of urgency based on data or policy requirements)?

○ What changes, if any, did you make to your definition of the
problem, based on your discussions?

○ What might you have done differently?

Requirement:

The assessment requirements, outlined below, correspond to the scoring guide criteria,
so be sure to address each main point. Read the performance-level descriptions for
each criterion to see how your work will be assessed. In addition, note the additional
requirements for document format and length and for supporting evidence.

● Explain how the patient, family, or population problem impacts the quality of
care, patient safety, and costs to the system and individual.

○ Cite evidence that supports the stated impact.
○ Note whether the supporting evidence is consistent with what

you see in your nursing practice.
● Explain how state board nursing practice standards and/or organizational or

governmental policies can affect the problem’s impact on the quality of
care, patient safety, and costs to the system and individual.

○ Describe research that has tested the effectiveness of these
standards and/or policies in addressing care quality, patient
safety, and costs to the system and individual.

○ Explain how these standards and/or policies will guide your
actions in addressing care quality, patient safety, and costs to
the system and individual.

○ Describe the effects of local, state, and federal policies or
legislation on your nursing scope of practice, within the context
of care quality, patient safety, and cost to the system and
individual.

● Propose strategies to improve the quality of care, enhance patient safety,
and reduce costs to the system and individual.

○ Discuss research on the effectiveness of these strategies in
addressing care quality, patient safety, and costs to the system
and individual.

○ Identify relevant and available sources of benchmark data on
care quality, patient safety, and costs to the system and
individual.

○ Document the time spent (your practicum hours) with these
individuals or group in the Capella Academic Portal Volunteer
Experience Form.

● Use paraphrasing and summarization to represent ideas from external
sources.

● Apply APA style and formatting to scholarly writing.

Competencies Measured:

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

● Competency 3: Transform processes to improve quality, enhance patient
safety, and reduce the cost of care.

○ Explain how a patient, family, or population problem impacts
the quality of care, patient safety, and costs to the system and
individual.

○ Propose strategies to improve the quality of care, enhance
patient safety, and reduce costs to the system and individual
and document the practicum hours spent with these individuals

or group in the Capella Academic Portal Volunteer Experience
Form.

● Competency 5: Analyze the impact of health policy on quality and cost of
care.

○ Explain how state board nursing practice standards and/or
organizational or governmental policies can affect a patient,
family, or population problem’s impact on the quality of care,
patient safety, and costs to the system and individual.

● Competency 8: Integrate professional standards and values into practice.
○ Use paraphrasing and summarization to represent ideas from

external sources.
○ Apply APA style and formatting to scholarly writing.

Format:

● Format: Format your paper using APA style.
○ A title page and reference page. An abstract is not required.
○ Appropriate section headings.

● Length: Your paper should be approximately 5 pages in length, not
including the reference page.

● Supporting evidence: Cite at least 5 sources of scholarly or professional
evidence that support your central ideas. Resources should be no more
than five years old. Provide in-text citations and references in APA format.

● Proofreading: Proofread your paper, before you submit it, to minimize errors
that could distract readers and make it more difficult for them to focus on its
substance.