NURS FPX 6016 Assessment 3 Data Analysis and Quality Improvement Initative Proposal

Name

Capella university

NURS-FPX 6016 Quality Improvement of Interprofessional Care

Prof. Name

Date

Data Analysis and Quality Improvement Initiative Proposal

Hello everyone, I am ____, and today I will present my topic on data analysis and quality improvement initiative proposal for end-of-life care. For this purpose, Vila Health Benchmark data derived from the Hospice Program’s dashboard metrics will be analyzed. Later, a quality improvement proposal will be described for Hospice Care. This will lead us to the next point, where interprofessional perspectives on quality improvement for hospice patients will be discussed. Lastly, the presentation will end by highlighting collaborative strategies for high-quality interprofessional care.

Analysis of Data on Hospice Care at Vila Health to Find Areas of Concern

The data provided in the Vila Health media piece were related to the hospice program, where patients with terminal illnesses required home-based care from the hospice care team. The gathered data showed that the hospice care teams that were well-communicated with the family members of hospice patients declined from 78% in 2020 to 75% in 2021 (Capella University, n.d.). This highlights an area of concern where there is a pressing need for healthcare professionals to improve communication and collaboration strategies with patients (Anderson et al., 2019).

Moreover, while there is a progressive increase (2% in 2021) in the percentage of hospice patients reporting being treated with dignity and respect, a significant portion of patients requiring end-of-life care were absent from receiving compassionate and respectful care (Capella University, n.d.). This requires additional training of healthcare professionals to freshen up their memory and care practices based on ethical principles such as dignity, respect, and benevolence (Östlund et al., 2019).

The percentage of hospice patients and family members who always acquired assistance immediately from the care team decreased by 2% from 70 % in 2020 to 68% in 2021 (Capella University, n.d.). This required nurses and other healthcare professionals to enable interprofessional communication to reduce delays in patient care promptly. This analysis also suggests that healthcare team members must improve care coordination strategies and be available for their patients as needed (Anderson et al., 2019). The data quality must be considered as prospective quality improvement initiatives are solely based on measured data. The Vila Health data provided is transparent and unbiased, showing the areas of concern where the data have shown negative results compared to the previous year.

Quality Improvement Initiative Proposal for Hospice Care at Vila Health Media

In light of the data mentioned above from the Vila Health Media piece, the quality improvement initiative proposal requires effective communication and training of healthcare professionals to enable ethically correct care treatments (Schofield et al., 2020). This will utilize health information technologies such as Electronic Health Records (EHRs) and remote monitoring. By using EHRs, healthcare professionals such as nurses, physicians, social workers, and relevant stakeholders can be on the same page and immediately deliver end-of-life care support (Haimovich et al., 2023). Through remote monitoring, healthcare professionals can monitor patients’ critical symptoms and manage pain effectively by allowing adequate communication with patients’ caregivers (Mooney et al., 2023). Moreover, the training sessions on delivering ethically correct care to hospice patients will allow them to be more compassionate and show dignity to patients and their family members (Artioli et al., 2019).

Knowledge Gaps and Missing Information

The proposal could have been further improved if the information regarding the patients and their capability of receiving care at home with the help of healthcare technologies were known. Moreover, more information is needed to be related to the duration of training sessions. What measures will be taken to evaluate the efficacy of training sessions for healthcare professionals to improve hospice care and smooth palliative care (Rowe et al., 2021)?

Integrating Interprofessional Perspectives to Improve Quality

The interprofessional perspectives were gathered in the Vila Health Media Piece that highlighted delivering holistic care for hospice patients to address their physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual health. Moreover, the interdisciplinary team of physicians, nurses, social workers, and therapists collaboratively work to deliver patient-centered palliative care to end-of-life patients (Bergenholtz et al., 2019). The interprofessional team highlighted the need for better pain and symptom management and required timely patient referrals to provide symptomatic treatment. They provide care treatments by involving patients’ family feedback to assess pain, symptoms, and overall comfort level of patients (Bergenholtz et al., 2019). Some additional specific actions that interprofessional teams can initiate to improve quality include:

• Training sessions on strategies to promote empathy and active listening (Hofmeyer & Taylor, 2020).
• Effective pain management strategies such as timely pharmacological interventions and patient-centered care plans, and collaboration with pharmacists and physicians to provide a pain-free life (Lundin & Godskesen, 2021).
• Communicate on-site or remotely to discuss patient-centered care plans regularly (Bernard et al., 2020).

These actions can improve quality regarding patient safety, work-life balance, and cost-effectiveness, as end-of-life care requires palliative and symptomatic treatment instead of urgent treatments. Healthcare professionals can optimize their curative efforts through these actions and prevent costs incurred due to untreated conditions and complex treatments (El-Jawahri et al., 2020).

Assumptions

These suggestions are based on several assumptions, including that patients with end-of-life conditions require comfort and tranquility by managing pain and other symptoms. Healthcare professionals are supposed to follow the ethical principles of benevolence and non-maleficence to provide kind and compassionate care to hospice patients. Lastly, every patient has a right to acquire high-quality care treatments to manage their painful medical conditions and improve health outcomes (Sullivan & Kirkpatrick, 2019).

Collaboration Strategies for Quality Interprofessional Care

Effective collaboration and concerted effort to provide care for hospice patients is necessary. Furthermore, collaboration among interprofessional teams can drive quality improvements in a multidisciplinary care approach ​​(Wei et al., 2019). For this purpose, the following collaboration strategies can be utilized by team members to ensure high-quality hospice care to hospice patients:

• Implementation of regular team meetings to foster a collaborative environment where clear and concise communication is promoted. This will reduce medication errors and prevent misunderstandings (Mertens et al., 2020). 
• Educating team members on the roles and responsibilities of each team member can foster mutual respect and promote a collaborative culture of care (Mukhalalati & Taylor, 2019).
• Integrate technology to facilitate effective communication and collaboration through easy information exchange, such as communication platforms and patient portals (Etkind et al., 2020).

By incorporating these strategies, hospice patients will probably have longer life spans, reduced need for emergency solutions, and improved quality of life.

Assumptions

It is assumed that collaboration is necessary for delivering patient-centered care and management of pain during end-of-life care. This will prevent medication and treatment errors and improve patient’s health. Moreover, the delegated roles will enable role clarity among team members, and misunderstandings will be fewer, stimulating the right care treatments at the proper times. Lastly, using technology to share information streamlines communication, saves time, and provides better-coordinated care (Vargo et al., 2020).

Conclusion

We discussed the dashboard health data on hospice care in the Vila Health document. This resulted in identifying areas of concern, such as better communication and collaboration. Moreover, training to deliver respectful care treatments was required. The interprofessional team perspectives and actions to improve the quality of initiatives are discussed. Lastly, collaboration strategies to improve the quality of coordinated care are highlighted.

References

Anderson, R. J., Bloch, S., Armstrong, M., Stone, P. C., & Low, J. T. (2019). Communication between healthcare professionals and relatives of patients approaching the end-of-life: A systematic review of qualitative evidence. Palliative Medicine, 33(8), 926–941. https://doi.org/10.1177/0269216319852007 

Artioli, G., Bedini, G., Bertocchi, E., Ghirotto, L., Cavuto, S., Costantini, M., & Tanzi, S. (2019). Palliative care training addressed to hospital healthcare professionals by palliative care specialists: A mixed-method evaluation. BMC Palliative Care, 18(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12904-019-0476-8 

Bergenholtz, H., Timm, H. U., & Missel, M. (2019). Talking about end of life in general palliative care – what’s going on? A qualitative study on end-of-life conversations in an acute care hospital in denmark. BMC Palliative Care, 18(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12904-019-0448-z 

Bernard, C., Tan, A., Slaven, M., Elston, D., Heyland, D. K., & Howard, M. (2020). Exploring patient-reported barriers to advance care planning in family practice. BMC Family Practice, 21(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12875-020-01167-0

Capella University. (n.d.). Vila health: Data analysis. capella.edu. https://signon.capella.edu/idp/SSO.saml2 

El-Jawahri, A., Nelson, A. M., Gray, T. F., Lee, S. J., & LeBlanc, T. W. (2020). Palliative and end-of-life care for patients with hematologic malignancies. Journal of Clinical Oncology, 38(9), 944–953. https://doi.org/10.1200/jco.18.02386 

NURS FPX 6016 Assessment 3 Data Analysis and Quality Improvement Initative Proposal

Etkind, S. N., Bone, A. E., Lovell, N., Cripps, R. L., Harding, R., Higginson, I. J., & Sleeman, K. E. (2020). The role and response of palliative care and hospice services in epidemics and pandemics: A rapid review to inform practice during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Pain and Symptom Management, 60(1). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jpainsymman.2020.03.029 

Haimovich, A. D., Xu, W., Wei, A., Schonberg, M. A., Hwang, U., & Taylor, R. A. (2023). Automatable end-of-life screening for older adults in the emergency department using electronic health records. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 71(6). https://doi.org/10.1111/jgs.18262 

Hofmeyer, A., & Taylor, R. (2020). Strategies and resources for nurse leaders to use to lead with empathy and prudence so they understand and address sources of anxiety among nurses practising in the era of COVID‐19. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 30(1-2), 298–305. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.15520 

Lundin, E., & Godskesen, T. E. (2021). End-of-life care for people with advanced dementia and pain: A qualitative study in Swedish nursing homes. BMC Nursing, 20(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-021-00566-7 

NURS FPX 6016 Assessment 3 Data Analysis and Quality Improvement Initative Proposal

Mertens, F., Debrulle, Z., Lindskog, E., Deliens, L., Deveugele, M., & Pype, P. (2020). Healthcare professionals’ experiences of inter-professional collaboration during patient’s transfers between care settings in palliative care: A focus group study. Palliative Medicine, 35(2), 026921632096874. https://doi.org/10.1177/0269216320968741 

Mooney, K., Coombs, L. A., Whisenant, M., Wilson, C., Ann Marie Moraitis, Steinbach, M., Sloss, E. A., Lloyd, J., Alekhina, N., Berry, P., Kang, Y., Iacob, E., & Donaldson, G. (2023). Impact of an automated, remote monitoring and coaching intervention in reducing hospice cancer family caregiving burden: A multisite randomized controlled trial. Cancer. https://doi.org/10.1002/cncr.35131 

Mukhalalati, B. A., & Taylor, A. (2019). Adult learning theories in context: A quick guide for healthcare professional educators. Journal of Medical Education and Curricular Development, 6(1), 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1177/2382120519840332 

Östlund, U., Blomberg, K., Söderman, A., & Werkander Harstäde, C. (2019). How to conserve dignity in palliative care: Suggestions from older patients, significant others, and healthcare professionals in Swedish municipal care. BMC Palliative Care, 18(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12904-019-0393-x 

Rowe, A. K., Rowe, S. Y., Peters, D. H., Holloway, K. A., & Ross-Degnan, D. (2021). The effectiveness of training strategies to improve healthcare provider practices in low-income and middle-income countries. BMJ Global Health, 6(1), e003229. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjgh-2020-003229 

Schofield, G., Dittborn, M., Huxtable, R., Brangan, E., & Selman, L. E. (2020). Real-world ethics in palliative care: A systematic review of the ethical challenges reported by specialist palliative care practitioners in their clinical practice. Palliative Medicine, 35(2), 315–334. https://doi.org/10.1177/0269216320974277 

NURS FPX 6016 Assessment 3 Data Analysis and Quality Improvement Initative Proposal

Sullivan, M. F., & Kirkpatrick, J. N. (2019). Palliative cardiovascular care: The right patient at the right time. Clinical Cardiology, 43(2), 205–212. https://doi.org/10.1002/clc.23307 

Vargo, D., Zhu, L., Benwell, B., & Yan, Z. (2020). Digital technology use during COVID-19 pandemic: A rapid review. Human Behavior and Emerging Technologies, 3(1), 13–24. https://doi.org/10.1002/hbe2.242 

Wei, H., Corbett, R. W., Ray, J., & Wei, T. L. (2019). A culture of caring: The essence of healthcare interprofessional collaboration. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 34(3), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1080/13561820.2019.1641476