identify a clinical quality topic, develop criteria, data collection tool, make up data, perform data analysis and report their findings.
The student will identify a clinical quality topic, develop criteria, data collection tool, make up data, perform data analysis and report their findings.Select a diagnostic or procedural topic relevant to patient care that would be suitable for a quality assessment and improvement project. See attachment for more details.
Quality Project Assignment
Select a diagnostic or procedural topic relevant to patient care that would be suitable for a quality assessment and improvement project.
- Define the purpose or focus of the assessment process. (Ask: What are we trying to accomplish?)
- Identify/develop at least four key indicators or parameters (performance measures) for the selected topic that provide data to support the purpose or focus of the assessment process. (Ask: What will tell us that a change is an improvement?) Use resources on this topic to help decide which indicators to use. Indicators may include, but are not limited to:
- Admission criteria/suggested population
- Continued-stay review criteria
- History of illness
- Lab values
- Symptomatology/indications for the disease or procedure
- Vital signs
- Medications
- Ongoing monitoring
- Length of stay
- Type of treatment
- Complications/management of care
- Comorbidities
- Management (for example, of therapy or education)
- Discharge planning
- Status
- Develop a data collection tool that incorporates the four indicators you developed in step 2. This tool might be a spreadsheet, database, or table.
- Determine the appropriate source for data collection on your topic (ie, patient chart, infection control data, lab data, etc). Make up data for the data collection for a minimum of 10 patients.
- Use the data collection tools to summarize data and create a data summary sheet.
- Use an analysis tool such as a fishbone diagram or run chart to analyze the data collected.
- Identify the team of healthcare professionals who would work on this assessment. Include healthcare professionals from a variety of support areas who could add input and contribute to the process as well as benefit from the results.
- Write a narrative summary of the study findings. The narrative should discuss the purpose of the assessment study, the data analysis, and the changes that would result in an improvement.
- Find an article that addresses your topic and use it as a resource to determine whether your study reflected data collected in actual studies. Attach a copy of the article to the summary.
- Identify and summarize all resources used to complete the project in a bibliography using the APA format. Submit the bibliography with the narrative and article. A minimum of three resources should be used. They may include personal contact with a health professional who could assist in defining the assessment process. Other resources could include manuals of indicators, articles, practice guidelines, tools, or graphic resources.