NUR-630 Topic 2 DQ 1

Sample Answer for NUR-630 Topic 2 DQ 1 Included After Question

Using the AHRQ SOPS Surveys webpage, provided in the topic Resources, select the SOPS survey appropriate for the practice setting in which you work. Complete the survey at your site and discuss how your facility scored. What changes would you recommend based on the survey results?

Knowledge Check

What is the importance of using credible surveys in to gather organizational data? Identify one significant change that can occur due to survey use.

A Sample Answer For the Assignment: NUR-630 Topic 2 DQ 1

Title: NUR-630 Topic 2 DQ 1  

Several years ago, my organization started a on a journey to improve the culture of patient safety in our facility.  We have seen many improvements over the course of this process.  At the start of this process we completed a Survey on Patient Safety Culture and we had many deficiencies.  At that time we did not have a well developed culture of safety, we wanted to be safe and provide quality care to our patients but we didn’t have the framework in place to be completely successful.  The areas we were most deficient in were consistently reporting safety concerns or near-misses, proactively investigating potential problems and the transparency around events and near-misses.

Applying the AHRQ SOPS Hospital Survey to my organization today reflects much better results in all areas.  We still have opportunities for improvement but we have come a long way.  We have a much more formalized process for reporting and documenting incidents or near-miss events that affect our patients and our staff.  Our staff is well educated on our Event Reporting System and the importance of completing an ERS for any actual or potential concerns.  These events are review by senior leadership at the start of each day and appropriate investigation and follow up is documented.

Any significant event is progressed on to and Apparent Cause Analysis or a Root Cause Analysis as needed to make sure that we have identified and corrected any issues that could cause repeat events.  We have also developed a more proactive approach to possible risks or events.  Each department does an annual Comprehensive Risk Assessment of their unit to identify areas of concern.  Corrective action plans are make for each area that is identify as a concern.  Our organization has also improved their openness about sharing events and making others aware of these items.  Our corporate office shares events that have happened throughout the organization as a learning opportunity for all facilities.  Every meeting is always started with a safety moment or good catch to make sure that we are focusing on a culture of safety.

The areas where we still have significant room for improvement on is Staffing/Work Pace and Communication.  In some units there is still a challenge with staff not feeling like they have the time to provide the quality of care that will keep their patients safe.  There is also the challenge of staffing to meet our productivity targets set my our corporate leaders.  This puts significant pressure on department leaders to chose between staffing to a level that the staff feel is appropriate versus what our corporate leaders feel is appropriate.

Communication in a large organization is always challenging.  We have put many items in place to improve hand off and safety but it is a process that must be managed daily to maintain.  Skoogh, Baath, & Hall-Lord (2022) referred to a safety culture as both an individual and organizational shared goal to decrease the risk of harm to our patients.  My organization has established a culture of safety and promotes that shared goal with our staff.  We have made significant improvements over the years and will continue to look for additional ways to prevent harm to our patients.

AHRQ. (2023). Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. https://www.ahrq.gov/sops/surveys/hospital/index.html

Skoogh, A., Bååth, C., & Hall-Lord, M. L. (2022). Healthcare professionals’ perceptions of patient safety culture and teamwork in intrapartum care: a cross-sectional study. BMC Health Services Research, 22(1), 820. https://doi-org.lopes.idm.oclc.org/10.1186/s12913-022-08145-5

A Sample Answer 2 For the Assignment: NUR-630 Topic 2 DQ 1

Title: NUR-630 Topic 2 DQ 1

Patient Safety Culture surveys help organizations determine how well they have enculturated safety as a priority when providing patient care (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2023).  These surveys ask employees questions about how safe they feel there are of work is, how well teams work together, and their perception of how much leadership values safety.  Organizations can use this feedback to identify areas of opportunity where the safety of the care environment can be improved, including raising awareness of safety promotion with their employees (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2023).

I work in the Long-Term Acute Care setting, where my hospital completes patient safety culture surveys every year.  I am familiar with many of these questions and concepts, as they are on the survey we administer to our employees.  I took the AHRQ hospital survey with my organization in mind, and compiled the results.  Overall I do think my organization does a great job at making safety a priority, and for the most part it is enculturated throughout the organization.  Areas where the organization excelled were team members working well together and respectfully, with patient safety as a top priority.

I also feel the organization does well at using safety issues and errors as opportunities to learn and improve, rather than making errors feel punitive, which is something that other organizations I have worked for have struggled with.  Staff also speak up for safety when something doesn’t seem right, and leadership rounds with staff every day to discuss safety issues and ask staff if there’s anything of concern they need to be aware of.  Areas of opportunity for the organization are probably common across the nation currently, with having enough staffing to safely care for patients being one of those areas.

I also think the organization could to more to encourage staff to formally report safety issues that don’t reach the patient but that we can learn from.  When events reach patients, staff do a good job of documenting in the medical record as well as the event reporting system, but there is still opportunity for improvement with reporting those events that are caught before they reach the patient.  These are the events we can truly learn from and put interventions in place to help prevent them from occurring in the future so they never reach any patients.

To improve in areas of opportunity, I think the organization could do more to encourage staff to report all safety events, especially those that don’t reach the patients.  I also think there could be some more innovative ways to staff patient care areas as well as recruiting new talent.  Staffing is an issue in many hospitals across the nation and having adequate staff would help keep safety top of mind, along with ensuring staff have enough time to care for patients correctly without having to sacrifice safety.

References:

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. (2023, January). What are the SOPS surveys? Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality: https://www.ahrq.gov/sops/surveys/index.html