Capella 4020 Assessment 1

Capella 4020 Assessment 1 Enhancing Quality and Safety

Name

Capella University

NURS-FPX 4020 Improving Quality of Care and Patient Safety

Prof. Name

Date

Enhancing Quality and Safety

Inadequate patient education is one of the quality and safety issues in healthcare settings that may lead to misunderstandings related to disease processes, patient-related medication errors, and suboptimal compliance with treatment plans. This assessment will analyze a similar case scenario where inadequate patient education led to serious patient safety risks. Further, this paper presents the evidence-based best practices to address the concern and nurses’ role in effective care coordination.  

Factors Leading to the Safety Problem

Olivia, a registered nurse at Miami Valley Hospital, discharged her patient, Mary, on November 15, 2023. Mary has been recently diagnosed with diabetes and needs insulin for her hyperglycemia management. Upon discharge, she received a prescription for administering ten units of Lantus at night. However, while managing five chronic patients, Olivia couldn’t provide sufficient education on using insulin pens. Unaware of proper injection skills and the importance of regular monitoring, the patient unintentionally administered incorrect doses and failed to recognize signs of hypoglycemia. As a consequence, Mary experienced severe blood glucose instabilities, leading to an emergency hospitalization. 

As mentioned above, the root cause of the scenario is patient education. A study presented statistics that estimated medication errors related to prescription, administration, and dispensing in the United States account for 1.5 million avoidable adverse events. Further in the study, it is mentioned that the World Health Organization considers this a greatest patient safety challenge and advocates the importance of patient education and knowledge on medication to address the challenge and improve patient safety (T et al., 2022). Another study examining the lack of patient education as a safety risk factor identified that most patients reported healthcare professionals’ underperformance in providing medication action and usage education, indicating that inadequate patient education is a system-level issue and must be comprehensively addressed (Zhang et al., 2019). Increased workload is a significant risk factor for insufficient education provision, as identified in the case mentioned above study.

Literature found a connection between nurses’ workload and patient safety risk by concluding that nursing workload can have severe negative outcomes on patient care, such as compromised quality, poor documentation, inadequate patient education, and medical errors (Banda et al., 2022). This evidence and the case scenario illustrate the importance of patient education to improve patient outcomes and treatment adherence, prevent medication errors, reduce recurrent admissions, improve cost-effectiveness, and enhance patient satisfaction. Other factors that may lead to inadequate patient education are time constraints, language barriers, limited patient engagement, lack of training for healthcare providers, and healthcare system complexities. 

Evidenced-based and Best-practice Interventions

Since inadequate patient education is becoming a healthcare challenge, it is vital to implement some evidence-based best practices to ensure that patients receive adequate knowledge about their conditions and treatment regimens. One of the best practices is to establish a patient-centered communication model. This model involves an interdisciplinary team to tailor educational interventions to individual patient needs and preferences, improving comprehension and adherence to the healthcare plan. Through this method, the content is personalized to remove unnecessary information, and only relevant and applicable information is added to gauge patients’ attention and participation in their healthcare (Ricci et al., 2022). 

Another effective evidence-based best practice is to establish a multidisciplinary education team. The team comprises healthcare professionals and health educators. It is identified through the study that the collaborative efforts of interdisciplinary teams result in enhanced prevention and improved health education, ultimately promoting healthy behaviors among patients. A multidisciplinary team accommodates several aspects of healthcare needs, so multidisciplinary collaborations precisely address individual needs, improving adherence to the plans and reducing errors (Schor et al., 2019). 

Capella 4020 Assessment 1

Lastly, empowering patients by promoting patient education using educational materials is essential. A study showed the effectiveness of educational materials such as personalized, informative handouts and patient portals integrated into Electronic Health Records (EHR), showing that these materials help patients on an ongoing basis to ensure they are physically and psychologically supported throughout the healthcare journey (Bhattad & Pacifico, 2022). Thus, these evidence-based best practices are essential to address the challenge of inadequate patient education in healthcare settings. Improving patient education is vital to increasing treatment adherence among the patient population and reducing hospital readmissions. Reducing hospital readmission rates decreases the need for further healthcare interventions, eventually making healthcare cost-effective for individuals. Furthermore, it engages patients in healthcare, resulting in informed and autonomous decisions. 

Nurses Role in Care Coordination 

Nurses are pivotal in care coordination, particularly in addressing inadequate patient education, improving patient safety, and reducing costs. Developing a personalized educational program is one of the nursing actions where nurses can coordinate with patients to understand their individual needs, health literacy levels, and self-management abilities. This assessment helps nurses tailor educational interventions for the patient by collaborating with other healthcare professionals. A study on the effectiveness of nurse-led personalized programs for diabetic patients concluded that improved treatment adherence enhanced patient participation and health outcomes (Cengiz & Korkmaz, 2023). Such individualized plans help prevent adverse events stemming from lack of education, reducing the likelihood of hospital readmissions and costs associated with health complications. 

Moreover, nurses can advocate within the organization to implement health information technology tools for patient education. Collaborating with other stakeholders in the organization, they can bring digital education and assist patients in utilizing those tools, such as patient portals and mobile applications. Many nurses believe these platforms can simplify patient education, foster better self-management, reduce the need for additional healthcare interventions, and minimize associated costs (Kahouei et al., 2021). Hence, nurses can meaningfully enhance patient safety and improve cost-effectiveness by taking an active role in coordinating care, with a specific focus on addressing inadequate patient education. 

Nurses’ Coordination with Stakeholders

To successfully address the quality and safety issue, nurses must collaborate with several stakeholders, including patients and their families, other healthcare professionals, IT professionals, health educators, and quality assurance teams. Patients and their families are central stakeholders, so collaborating with them is crucial to understanding individual needs, preferences, and potential barriers (Cengiz & Korkmaz, 2023). This collaboration fosters a shared decision-making environment, involving patients in their healthcare to improve treatment adherence and reduce errors. Simultaneously, coordination with physicians, pharmacists, and other healthcare providers is essential. Interdisciplinary communication promotes a comprehensive understanding of the patient’s healthcare plan, reducing the risk of miscommunication and errors. 

In establishing patient portals, nurses must coordinate with IT professionals to integrate technology into the education process. These tools can expand information accessibility, patient engagement, and the overall efficiency of educational interventions (Kahouei et al., 2021). Similarly, nurses must collaborate with health educators to develop educational material according to professional standards and policies. These educators contribute their knowledge in designing instructional material tailored to individual needs for easy comprehension. Lastly, the quality assurance team is essential to perform ongoing assessments of the patient education process, collect patient feedback, and improve the quality of services, ultimately enhancing patient safety and quality of healthcare. 

Conclusion

In conclusion, inadequate patient education is a significant quality and safety healthcare concern, as evident in the case study where lack of patient education led to medication error, severe complications, and hospital readmission for a diabetic patient. Evidence-based best practices provide several solutions to address this challenge, including a patient-centered communication model, establishing a multidisciplinary team, and availability of personalized educational material through electronic portals. Nurses play a vital role in achieving these outcomes through care coordination with several stakeholders by developing individualized educational programs and advocating for technology integration within the organization. These approaches and coordinated care are essential to improve patient education within the organization, enhance patients’ adherence to care plans, minimize medication errors, and reduce healthcare costs, eventually improving patient safety and well-being. 

References

Banda, Z., Simbota, M., & Mula, C. (2022). Nurses’ perceptions on the effects of high nursing workload on patient care in an intensive care unit of a referral hospital in Malawi: A qualitative study. BMC Nursing, 21, 136. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-022-00918-x

Bhattad, P. B., & Pacifico, L. (2022). Empowering patients: Promoting patient education and health literacy. Cureus, 14(7), e27336. https://doi.org/10.7759/cureus.27336 

Cengiz, D., & Korkmaz, F. (2023). Effectiveness of a nurse‐led personalized patient engagement program to promote type 2 diabetes self‐management: A randomized controlled trial. Nursing & Health Sciences, nhs.13048. https://doi.org/10.1111/nhs.13048 

Kahouei, M., Soleimani, M., Mirmohammadkhani, M., Doghozlou, S. N., & Valizadeh, Z. (2021). Nurses’ attitudes of a web patient portal prior to its implementation in home health care nursing. Health Policy and Technology, 10(3), 100524. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.hlpt.2021.100524 

Capella 4020 Assessment 1

Ricci, L., Villegente, J., Loyal, D., Ayav, C., Kivits, J., & Rat, A. (2022). Tailored patient therapeutic educational interventions: A patient‐centred communication model. Health Expectations : An International Journal of Public Participation in Health Care and Health Policy, 25(1), 276–289. https://doi.org/10.1111/hex.13377

Schor, A., Bergovoy-Yellin, L., Landsberger, D., Kolobov, T., & Baron-Epel, O. (2019). Multidisciplinary work promotes preventive medicine and health education in primary care: A cross-sectional survey. Israel Journal of Health Policy Research, 8(1), 50. https://doi.org/10.1186/s13584-019-0318-4 

T, R., I U, H., M Y, M., & P, G. (2022). Patients’ knowledge about medicines improves when provided with written compared to verbal information in their native language. PloS One, 17(10), e0274901. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0274901 

Capella 4020 Assessment 1

Zhang, L., Luan, W., Geng, S., Ye, S., Wang, X., Qian, L., Ding, Y., Li, T., & Jiang, A. (2019). Lack of patient education is a risk factor of disease flare in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus in China. BMC Health Services Research, 19(1), 378. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-019-4206-y