The Role of Nursing Leadership in Hospital Quality Improvement Term Paper

The Role of Nursing Leadership in Hospital Quality Improvement - Term Paper Example QI is a persistent process that involves mutual efforts and labor at all the levels of an organization to deliver better services to health care clients. It is attained as a result of positive interactions among various departments of a hospital to devise a progressive system that constantly improves the processes and outcomes of health care. The concept of QI comprise of quality assurance and problem resolution (Moran and Johnson, 1992). The multitude of hospital quality improvement activities involves participation in external programs sponsored by accreditation and regulatory bodies, QI organizations etc. Also, several hospitals participate in internal QI activities which are derived from employee and patient feedback (Draper et al., 2008). According to Hassmiller and Needleman (2009), the integration of nursing managers into decision making bodies of hospital provides improved quality of care and hospital efficiency. The initiation and progression of Magnet accreditation programs escalates the participation of nursing leadership in hospitals. The basis of magnet appraisal provided by American Nurses Credentialing Center (ANCC) is based on strong nursing representation in organization’s leadership structure, deployment of nursing manager that have a role in hospital’s executive leadership, a shared governance operational system in nursing and authoritative powers of nursing leadership at all functioning level of hospital. Initially the concept of magnet status was based on attracting retention and job satisfaction among nurses however, later it was revealed that it is associated with improved hospital quality and patient care. Another accreditation... This essay approves that quality is a mutual responsibility and along with nursing mangers every nurse and employee should participate in it. Some of the QI efforts recommended for nursing administration include establishment of standards and making staff liable for individual roles, inspiring nurses to champion efforts, maintenance and presentation of valuable feed back to the nursing staff for future motivation and encouragement, engaging nursing staff at all levels of QI activities from bedside to management and modification in traditional nursing education that does not prepare nursing staff for their advanced role in contemporary health care settings. In this regard, emphasis on QI skill development and effective implementation of these activities in a hospital setting are required. Nursing administration may find it difficult to manage high level of administrative burden linked with these activities. Similarly, the conversion of scientific data into useful form of experiential learning is a tiresome process which involves patient hospital stay and feedback etc; however, the involvement of nursing staff in such experiential learning is foundation for QI strategies and measures. This report makes a conclusion that nursing leadership play a focal role in QI of health care settings. The hospitals have to adapt and pursue schemes/projects that significantly contribute to achievement of quality, patient care and performance goals. In this regard, optimization of nursing administration roles is vital for smooth operation of QI activities. Challenges and barriers should be identified and effectively removed for sustainable QI of a hospital.