Module 7 Discussion Quality of Care

Sample Answer

The quality of care delivered and the outcomes ac[phieved by an Advanced Practice Nurse (APN) can be measured and monitored using various measures like the effectiveness of care, treatment outcomes, patient experience, readmission rates, the safety of patient care, and mortality rates. The APN’s effectiveness of care can be measured by assessing their compliance with clinical practice guidelines.

APNs’ treatment plans can be monitored to establish whether they are founded on best-practice care guidelines, which are crucial for achieving the best care outcomes (Beauchemin et al., 2019). Poor patient outcomes suggest the APN may not adhere to the treatment guidelines. On the other hand, improved patient outcomes suggest that the patient is delivering high-quality care and that their interventions are based on the best practice care guidelines.

Patients’ experience with the care given can also be used to measure the quality of care delivered by APNs. High quality of care leads to better outcomes and high patient satisfaction. On the other hand, low patient satisfaction is linked to poor health outcomes like complications and morbidities from falls, medication errors, or missed nursing care (Karaca & Durna, 2019). Thus, patients’ satisfaction with care can be monitored to identify if the APN is providing high-quality care and achieving the best patient outcomes.

Readmission rates are often used to assess the quality of care provided in the inpatient unit. High readmission rates are associated with poor quality of care, while low readmission rates are linked to high quality of care. Thus, the quality of care provided by the APN can be evaluated by monitoring the readmission rates in the units or patients managed by the nurse. A high readmission rate would suggest that the APN did not effectively implement measures to improve patients’ outcomes after discharge, like providing health education and assessing patients’ understanding of self-care interventions.

It would also mean that the APN failed to identify patients’ post-acute care needs, follow up with them post-discharge, and collaborate with their primary caregiver (Beauchemin et al., 2019). On the other hand, a low readmission rate means that the APN assessed patients’ post-acute care needs and provided crucial discharge education on nutrition, infection and fall prevention, medication compliance, lifestyle modification, and self-management interventions like blood glucose and blood pressure measurement.

The safety of patient care is a great measure to assess the quality of patient care provided by the APN. Patient safety outcome measures that can be used in monitoring include incidence of Hospital-acquired infections (HAIs), patient falls, pressure ulcers, and medication errors. These outcomes are final measures used in patient safety to convey the harms patients face (Vaismoradi et al., 2020). High incidences of HAIs in the patient managed by APNs would indicate substandard quality of care.

HAIs occur due to missed nursing care, failure to adhere to clinical guidelines, and failure to adhere to aseptic techniques and infection prevention measures when handling patients. Furthermore, high patient falls may suggest inadequate assessment of patients at risk for falls or failure to implement preventive measures for falls. Medication errors are a reflection of the quality of care provided by the APN. Low incidences mean that the APN has achieved the outcome of promoting patient safety.

Lastly, mortality is a vital outcome measure that can be used to assess if the APN has achieved the outcome of providing safe and high-quality patient care. The APN’s quality of care can be monitored by evaluating mortality rates in their units. High mortality rates indicate poor quality of care, while reduced mortalities reflect a high quality of care.

References

• Beauchemin, M., Cohn, E., & Shelton, R. C. (2019). Implementation of Clinical Practice Guidelines in the Health Care Setting A Concept Analysis. ANS. Advances in nursing science, 42(4), 307–324. https //doi.org/10.1097/ANS.0000000000000263
• Karaca, A., & Durna, Z. (2019). Patient satisfaction with the quality of nursing care. Nursing open, 6(2), 535–545. https //doi.org/10.1002/nop2.237
• Vaismoradi, M., Tella, S., A Logan, P., Khakurel, J., & Vizcaya-Moreno, F. (2020). Nurses’ Adherence to Patient Safety Principles A Systematic Review. International journal of environmental research and public health, 17(6), 2028. https //doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17062028