ASSIGNMENT 1:

Quality and Sustainability Paper: Part 1

Assessment Description

This assignment will be completed in two parts, which will be synthesized into a final paper.

The purpose of this assignment is to investigate a quality and/or safety issue in a health care entity. You will use the issue and health care entity that you select in this paper for Part 2 of the assignment and for the sustainability assignments. You may use an issue identified at the practice site in your DPI Project.

General Guidelines:

Use the following information to ensure successful completion of the assignment:

· Doctoral learners are required to use APA style for their writing assignments. 

· This assignment requires that you support your position by referencing six to eight scholarly resources. At least three of your supporting references must be from scholarly sources other than the assigned readings.

· You are required to submit this assignment to LopesWrite to verify similarity scores.  

Directions:

Write a paper (1,500-1,750 words) discussing the role of quality or safety in nursing practice. Include the following:

1. In your own words, define quality and safety measures and describe their relationship and role in nursing practice today.

2. Create a table that identifies three barriers, and three facilitators or methods for addressing the barriers, in today's health care that impact both patient outcomes and organizational outcomes.      Evaluate two of the barriers and provide solutions for how health care organizations can overcome them. Describe two of the facilitators or methods and explain how the facilitators or methods will assist overcoming or reducing barriers. Attach the table as an appendix to this assignment.

3. Identify a health care entity. Provide an overall description of this entity without using the real name (e.g., location, size, profit or nonprofit, years in operation). In addition to not using the name of the health care entity, do not use the name of any person described.

4. Select a specific contemporary quality and/or safety issue that is measured at the health care entity and explain how that measure is applied in nursing practice. You will use this selected issue      for all quality and sustainability assignments.

5. Describe the current quality and/or safety program the health care entity has in place to address the quality and/or safety issue you selected. Describe the key quality measures or components currently used to analyze the health care program's outcome. Discuss what is working and      what is not working.

6. Summarize the specific variables used to track improvement of the health care quality and/or safety program's outcome.

RESOURCES