NR 447 DeVry Week 2 discussion Latest

AACN Essentials Self-Assessment and Patient-Centered Care (graded)

Locate and complete the Self-Assessment of the AACN Essentials located in Doc Sharing (Week 2). Follow the directions on the form. Note your total score. Next, review the article cited below:

Kramer, M., Schmalenberg, C., Maguire, P., Brewer, B., Burke, R., Chmielewski, L., … Meeks-Sjostrom, D. (2009). Walk the talk: Promoting control of nursing practice and a patient-centered culture. Critical Care Nurse, 29(3), 77–93. Click to link.

Answer the following:

1. If you are willing, please share your total score on the AACN Essentials Self-Assessment
2. Candidly identify and share with your classmates areas where knowledge, skills or abilities (KSAs) are lacking
3. Describe the relationship between the Essentials and your new-found knowledge about Patient Centered Care. Are there opportunities for your improvement?

 

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION 

AACN Essentials Self-Assessment and Patient-Centered Care

Introduction

The AACN Essentials Self-Assessment and Patient-Centered Care is a companion tool for the Practice Framework for Advanced Clinical Nurse Specialists in Acute & Critical Care. It provides a clear, concise view of the essential core competencies that all advanced clinical nurse specialists need to know in order not just to pass this exam but also to be able to demonstrate effective practice as an advanced clinical nurse specialist in acute and critical care. The AACN Essentials Self-Assessment Companion Tool is designed around key questions from each domain:

AACN Essentials Self-Assessment and Patient-Centered Care

With the AACN Essentials Self-Assessment and Patient-Centered Care, you will be able to:

• Provide patient-centered care

• Use and apply evidence to support decision making

• Evaluate outcomes to advance patient care

• Apply quality improvement processes

Provide patient-centered care.

• Understand patient values and preferences.

• Provide information in a way the patient can understand.

• Provide care that is respectful of the patient’s values and preferences.

• Demonstrate empathy towards patients

Use and apply evidence to support decision making.

You should consider using evidence-based practice to support patient care. Evidence-based practice helps you use the best available research to inform your decisions, improve outcomes and guide practice change.

Evidence-based practices are based on systematic reviews of published literature (randomized controlled trials, observational studies and other types of research) that use explicit criteria for evaluating the quality of the evidence related to a specific intervention or procedure. The results from these studies are used by researchers and clinicians to determine whether there is enough information about an intervention or procedure to say that it works well in most people, under most circumstances.

Because all healthcare interventions are associated with potential benefits and possible risks or harms, it’s important for healthcare providers such as nurses who provide nursing care outside their home setting (e.g., hospitals) use current best practices when providing patient care so they can minimize harm while maximizing lives saved through effective treatment plans implemented by qualified staff members at facilities where patients receive treatment after being discharged from acute care facilities such as hospitals

Evaluate outcomes to advance patient care.

Outcomes are the final results of a process.

The outcome of a process is the result of that process.

The final results of a process are referred to as outcomes, and they can be measured in several ways. For example, you may consider how many patients have been able to return home from the hospital after receiving care at your center or how many eligible patients have received an organ transplant in the last five years, both of which would be examples of outcomes measurement.

Apply quality improvement processes.

• Define quality improvement

• Describe the process of quality improvement

• Describe the benefits of quality improvement

• Describe the role of the nurse in quality improvement

Improve processes and outcomes to advance safety, quality, and the experience of care.

In order to improve processes and outcomes, four key elements must be present:

• Processes – To identify problems in your current process, think about which indicators can best signal that something might be wrong. For example, if your hospital has a low rate of patients who leave the emergency room against medical advice (AMA), that could signal that there are issues with patient satisfaction or safety.

• Outcomes – The goals you set should be specific and measurable so you can determine whether they’ve been met at the end of the improvement project. It’s best not to use vague terms like “improve our services” or “improve morale.” Instead, for example: “Increase overall patient satisfaction scores by X percent over 12 months.”

• Patients – Everyone involved in improving care must consider how it will impact patients’ experience of care, as well as whether it will result in better quality outcomes. For example: If we cut down on wait times by using electronic health records (EHRs) instead of paper charts when admitting patients into our hospital admissions department, how will this affect our staff members’ ability to communicate with each other? Will it improve their workflow through sharing vital information more efficiently? What does this mean for those who work with these EHRs day-in and day-out—will they be more efficient because they have all necessary documentation right at their fingertips rather than having to scour through reams of paper documents every time they need access another piece related information during an admission process?

Conclusion

We’ve just taken a quick look at the six AACN Essentials in practice. We hope this information has been helpful and that you’re ready to put it into action! Remember that your patients deserve quality care, so always strive to provide them with excellent service. If you need some more background on any of these topics, feel free to check out more resources from our website or even reach out directly via email.