Quality Improvement in Nursing
Quality Improvement Project
Answering the call light (also called call bell a handheld like that is attached to the patient room wall, above the headboard of the bed) in a timely manner by the nursing staff in hospital setting is necessary to prevent falls that can harm, prolonged stays, and unnecessarily increase the cost of healthcare. However, researches concerning call light uses as it relates to patient safety, patient-care management and patient satisfaction are limited (Meade et al. 2006). Patients and their families emphasize that nurses should monitor patients constantly and provide assistance and answer a call light in a timely manner (Yoder, 2011). Note that the falls may be caused by several factors such as physiological, psychological and/or environmental-related to each individual patient (Joint Commission, 2005). The nurse initiating this project will focus on the rate of falls related to a delay in response to the call light. The hospital, where the Quality Improvement Project (QIP) is done, uses the Hill-Rom system to operate and record the time it takes to respond to a call light prior to the incident as base for the (QIP). The nurse will identify opportunities to improve the quality of care delivered as well as the response time to a patient's needs. The nurse working on the project used the study done by (Tzeng & Yi Yin, 2009) as a model to follow. In fact, Tzeng & Yi Yin suggested that the goal of the quality care is to reduce the response time to the call bell to a number that is unlikely to lead to a fall. During their project, the authors explored the contribution of the call bell use rate and the average response time to the fall rate, the injurious fall rate and patient satisfaction scores that occurred in four adult inpatient acute care units (Tzeng & Yi Yin, 2009). Improving the responsiveness to the call light and reducing the fall rate is important for both the safety of the patient and the reputation and
Answering the call light (also called call bell a handheld like that is attached to the patient room wall, above the headboard of the bed) in a timely manner by the nursing staff in hospital setting is necessary to prevent falls that can harm, prolonged stays, and unnecessarily increase the cost of healthcare. However, researches concerning call light uses as it relates to patient safety, patient-care management and patient satisfaction are limited (Meade et al. 2006). Patients and their families emphasize that nurses should monitor patients constantly and provide assistance and answer a call light in a timely manner (Yoder, 2011). Note that the falls may be caused by several factors such as physiological, psychological and/or environmental-related to each individual patient (Joint Commission, 2005). The nurse initiating this project will focus on the rate of falls related to a delay in response to the call light. The hospital, where the Quality Improvement Project (QIP) is done, uses the Hill-Rom system to operate and record the time it takes to respond to a call light prior to the incident as base for the (QIP). The nurse will identify opportunities to improve the quality of care delivered as well as the response time to a patient's needs. The nurse working on the project used the study done by (Tzeng & Yi Yin, 2009) as a model to follow. In fact, Tzeng & Yi Yin suggested that the goal of the quality care is to reduce the response time to the call bell to a number that is unlikely to lead to a fall. During their project, the authors explored the contribution of the call bell use rate and the average response time to the fall rate, the injurious fall rate and patient satisfaction scores that occurred in four adult inpatient acute care units (Tzeng & Yi Yin, 2009). Improving the responsiveness to the call light and reducing the fall rate is important for both the safety of the patient and the reputation and
References: ------------------------------------------------- Deitrick L, Bokovoy J, Stern G & Panik A (2006) Dance of the call bells: using ethnography to ------------------------------------------------- Joint Commission (2005) ------------------------------------------------- Meade CM, Bursell AL & Ketelsen L (2006) Effects of nursing rounds on patients’ call light use, ------------------------------------------------- MLHS (2010).https://webapps.mlhs.org/nursing/page69.aspx