Reference no: EM133611963

Assignment: Outcome Measures, Issues, and Opportunities

This document is designed to give you questions to consider and additional guidance to help you successfully complete the Outcome Measures, Issues, and Opportunities assessment. You may find it useful to use this document as a pre-writing exercise, an outlining tool, or as a final check to ensure that you have sufficiently addressed all the grading criteria for this assessment. This document is a resource to help you complete the assessment.

Drafting the Report

A. Analyze organizational functions, processes, and behaviors in high-performing health care organizations or practice settings.

1. For example, consider such functions, processes, and behaviors as leadership practices, communications, quality processes, financial management, safety and risk management, interprofessional collaboration, strategic planning, using the best available evidence, and questioning the status quo on all levels.

2. What makes these organizations high performers?

3. What are these organizations doing that less successful organizations are not?

4. How does your organization or practice setting compare to these benchmarks of high-performance?

B. Determine how organizational functions, processes, and behaviors affect outcome measures.

1. What is the extent of the positive and negative effects on the outcome measures?

2. What are the reasons for these effects?

C. Identify the quality and safety outcomes and associated measures relevant to the performance gap you intend to close.

1. Create a spreadsheet showing the outcome measures.

2. Refer to the example outcome measures spreadsheet, linked in the resources, that shows medication reconciliation compliance rates.

D. Identify performance issues or opportunities associated with particular organizational functions, processes, and behaviors and the quality and safety outcomes they affect.

1. What issues or opportunities are relevant to the systemic problem that you are addressing?

2. What factors give rise to these performance issues or opportunities?

3. What are their potential effects on outcomes?

E. Outline a strategy for ensuring that all aspects of patient care are measured and that knowledge is shared with the staff.

1. What are the key steps needed to implement your strategy? You are encouraged to use one of the change models included in the Mitchell (2013) article.

2. How will information, knowledge, and best practices be shared?

Instructions

Draft a 6 pages report on outcome measures, issues, and opportunities for the executive leadership team or applicable stakeholder group.

Introduction

As a nurse leader, you may be called upon to submit a detailed report to your executive leadership team and key stakeholders that describes a quality or safety problem and its effects on outcomes, fully supported by relevant and credible data.

This assessment provides an opportunity to draft such a report in which you can call attention to quality and safety issues and opportunities, effectively support your position, and lay out a plan for change.

Preparation

This assessment is based on the executive summary you prepared in the previous assessment.

Your executive summary captured the attention and interest of the executive leadership team, who have asked you to provide them with a detailed report addressing outcome measures and performance issues or opportunities, including a strategy for ensuring that all aspects of patient care are measured.

Note: As you revise your writing, check out the resources listed on the Writing Center's Writing Support page.

As you prepare to complete this assessment, you may want to think about other related issues to deepen your understanding or broaden your viewpoint. You are encouraged to consider the questions below and discuss them with a fellow learner, a work associate, an interested friend, or a member of your professional community. Note that these questions are for your own development and exploration and do not need to be completed or submitted as part of your assessment.

A. How might you engage stakeholders to help develop, implement, and sustain a vision to actually change and improve patient outcomes?

B. What arguments might be most effective in obtaining agreement and support?

C. What recommendations would you make to implement a proposed plan for change?