As nursing leaders, the empowerment of staff to improve the delivery of safe quality care is imperative in today’s healthcare environment. The Management and Leadership track of the American Sentinel MSN program has provided the guidance to cultivate and prepare future nurse leaders to develop a sense of ownership and commitment to their work and organization. The evidenced based practice (EBP) project that is proposed will be implemented at the Veterans Administration Medical Center (VAMC); it will support the staff to improve the quality of care for the veteran population at this facility. The proposed EBP is a practice change project that will focus on improving diabetic foot related problems in the End Stage Renal Disease population that receive hemodialysis at the VAMC. End Stage Renal Disease is a slow progressive loss of kidney function resulting from structural damage to the kidneys leaving the body unable to excrete metabolites. As the disease process reaches that point the patient must choose hemodialysis or some other form of renal replacement therapy (Medical News Today, 2014). I am a Nurse Manager in the hemodialysis unit. The unit has eleven stations with a patient population of 40. The age range of veterans that receive care in this unit is 40 – 92. Most of the hemodialysis patients have difficulty managing their chronic illness and usually receive treatment three times a week for five hours of each visit. Most of them have
The framework of clinical excellence in the organization begins with a structure that supports the process (Porter-O’Grady, 2016 et al p. 327). Building excellence into the fabric of an organization requires support and engagement of nurse leaders and their followers to the work of healing, in a work environment where effective communications occur and healthcare providers (including nurse leaders) are acknowledged for their positive behavior and negative behaviors are addressed quickly (Porter-O’Grady, 2016 et al p.
They are tasked to encourage and facilitate EBP projects. This is one way of actively supporting, promoting and continuing to improve patient outcomes with the use of evidence-based practices. Challenges arise when there are no consistent leadership in this SL group that may be due to personal reasons, schedule challenges and the different challenges that may come during the steps in conducting the EBP project itself. In my personal experience on the EBP project on bedside handoff, the advantages and benefits of changing from nurse-to-nurse handoff at the nurses’ station to bedside handoff were emphasized to all stakeholders, including the increase in patient satisfaction when patients are involved in their care. However, we faced a high push-back form staff when it came to the implementation phase. There were concerns that handoff would be longer than usual, and that breech of patient confidentiality and privacy would ensue if bedside handoff was done. Despite all that, the bedside handoff EBP was successfully implemented mostly due to the timing and adequacy of staff education that included role playing, as well as strong support of the leadership team. According to Adams, Farrington and Cullen (2012), “The final and perhaps most intimidating step in the evidence-based practice (EBP) process is dissemination.” But with proper preparation, this can be
Ms. Cetiner has been an RN in the hemodialysis unit for the past 6 years. She provides excellent care to our Veterans, and consistently functions in a professional manner with staff, patients and families. She was part of a unit I CARE award presented by Dr. Mayo-Smith for quality and commitment to our Veterans. She demonstrates competency in the utilization of the nursing process as evidenced by the accurate assessment, plan, implementation, and evaluation of patient care in her daily practice. She developed a unit diabetic foot
Professionalism in nursing has advanced greatly over the years. A cornerstone for change includes that of evidence based practice (EBP) as the drive of nursing intervention and patient care. According to the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN), Evidence-based practice is described as the combination of the most recent evidence with clinical knowledge that includes the patient’s best interests in mind for greater patient outcomes (QSEN, 2017). The QSEN’s goal is to prepare nurses for improvement in quality and safety of patients (2017). Because of this goal, six competencies, including evidence-based practice, are listed for criteria of improvement in nursing practice (2017). I have been fortunate to have experience with implementing this practice and providing education in certain EBP protocols in my career. One EBP protocol in particular that our unit has been involved in since May of this year includes Enhanced Recovery After Surgery (ERAS) now referred to as Improving Surgical Care and Recovery (ISCR).
The Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) helped me to develop leadership skills in my nursing practice by utilizing the integration of nursing science, theories, and concepts with knowledge from ethics, the biophysical, psychosocial, analytical, and organizational sciences as the basis for the highest level of nursing practice. At the start of the DNP program, I was a clinical bedside nurse with limited skills as a nurse educator and leadership, now I feel I have achieved mastery in developing leadership skills as well as increased confidence in the use of evidence-based practice and research. Examples of critical events that have stimulated my growth in the program include the DNP project plan and the workshop implementation.
The incorporation of evidenced-based practice (EBP) into nursing practice is supported by research to positively improve the quality of care and improve patient outcomes. EBP is important to the nursing profession because it also leads to increased job satisfaction, teamwork, and levels of engagement in clinicians (Melnyk, et al., 2017). Miniature research projects such as quality improvement projects, surveys, and clinical research studies are frameworks used to get feedback and data from patients during their time spent in health care systems. EBP is not the standard of care in many health care systems (Melnyk, et al., 2017). This due to many factors, including lack of EBP mentors, nursing programs that do not incorporate EBP into the curriculum,
The student’s quality improvement project aligned with the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (2006) utilizing evidence-based practice to provide quality post-hospitalization follow-up for veterans who are admitted into non-VA facilities. During the immersion experience, the student was able to assess the current facility’s practice and collaborate with various profession at various levels of system of the current practice in the planning phase. . In addition, the partnership among the inter-organizations and inter-disciplines bring changes to current practice and improve the continuity of care from inpatient to outpatient settings. In addition, the data from the project indicates that many non-VA admissions are
Due to patient new life situation, MS has to change his life style and diet. He has to schedule his work hours so he will be able to come to unit on time and do not short his treatment. Also MS has to modify his diet to renal diet with low sodium, low potassium, low phosphorus, high protein, and fluid restriction. MS has to check his blood pressure and take his medication as per doctor orders.
A few service models are generally accepted as an outpatient dialysis service line. Healthcare organizations have to decide which mode of dialysis they deem most effective in serving their patients: 1) Outsourcing their dialysis service line to a specialized service provider such as Fresenius or Davita, 2) instituting a home dialysis service 3) Implementing a hospital stand alone outpatient dialysis center 4) Free standing dialysis clinic. In addition, organizations need to establish protocols on the two-dialysis treatments, hemodialysis or peritoneal dialysis, and reach a consensus which to provide.
Nursing leadership plays an important role in the ability to improve the quality of care that is available to the patient, but in order to be able to reach this capacity of “change and innovation [it] requires a clinical leader mind-set that includes a strong personal awareness of one’s strengths and vulnerability, openness to other ideas, courage to challenge the status quo, and a highly developed comfort with rational risk taking” (Porter-O’Grady, 2013, p.71). The application of these leadership characteristics empowers the nurse to identify gaps in patient care, integrate evidence based research, and find alternate solutions to the problems identified in patient care (Committee, O. T. R. W. J., 2010).
The Institute of Medicine defines “Evidence-based practice as the integration and implementation of the best research evidence along with clinical expertise and patient values” (IOM 2001: 147). Speakers at the Upper Rio Grande Region IOM Future of Nursing Symposium last week strongly emphasized that nurses are to be the driving force behind the execution of evidenced based practice within the work places
As a competent registered nurse, my career goal is to become a healthcare quality improvement leader, a position that would enhance my commitment in promoting patient safety. I not only believe in enhancing the capacity of other care providers, but also in improving the quality of the healing environment for the benefit of both patients and their care providers. This means not only promoting collaboration with the multidisciplinary teams, but also building the necessary healing partnerships with our patients. To enhance the quality of the healing environment, I aspire to continue analyzing researches for evidence based practices and advocating for their actualization. I will continue focusing my time and energy in encouraging other nurses to improve their skills through formal education, so they can empower themselves as advocates of quality improvement for the benefit of their patients and coworkers.
Evidence-based practice (EBP) in nursing means making decisions about patient care on the basis of best, current, standardized practice and guidelines. According to an article, written by Dr. Kathleen Stevens, the development of evidence-based practice (EBP) is fueled by the increasing public and professional demand for accountability in safety and quality improvement in health care (Stevens, 2013). The author also mentioned in her article that the intended effect of EBP is to standardize healthcare practices to science and best evidence and to reduce illogical variation in care,
Leadership traits associated with nurse executives are honesty, credibility, supportiveness, visibility, and flexibility. Nurse executives analyze nursing functions and empower nurses through participatory decision making, shared governance, and employee involvement. Nurse executives share the vision and goals of the hospital and promote application of a nursing theory into the nursing care delivery system. They anticipate the future of health care and nursing and serve as monitor, role model, and preceptor to lower level management (Upeniecks, 2003). Nurse executives in the Magnet program are required to have advance practice degrees with certification in their specialty (ANCC). Understanding evidence-based management and enabling the use of evidence-based knowledge provides the nurse executive with the tools to improve patient outcomes. The transformational leader will remove barriers to improvement and encourage outcome based thinking. While nurse leaders are charged with questioning the status quo, nurse managers in the transformational approach to leadership are charged with maintaining the status quo.
In nursing, we grow every day; learning to be a strong professional takes many skills. Some people are born with, and some acquired through practice and research. It is important in being a good democratic leader to establish rules effectively with peers and subordinates. Leadership involves action, creativity, motivation, and visioning. It is viewing the possibilities and motivating others to make things happen (Kearney-Nunnery, 2016). Evidence based practice is a must to have a successful and a safe practice in your work environment, whether it is a hospital or nursing home. Leadership and evidence based practice are two parts of the coin that are very important in being a nurse leader. Leadership is a critical part of the organization to apply evidence based practice. This paper identifies and defines these important nursing traits and discusses the traits that are significant to being proficient in these skills.