Quality In Nursing

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Pages: 5

Introduction:
Quality improvement and management grossly contribute to the effectiveness and efficiency of our constantly developing healthcare system in Ireland (HIQA, 2013). A health strategy development has been instigated containing four principles, equality services among patients, patient centred care approach, evidence based standards to improve quality of care and staff accountability, in order to improve care (HIQA, 2012). The idea of clinical management is to drive improvements in areas of the health care system in order to improve quality, reliable and safe care to patients in the most effective and efficient way within the resources available (HIQA, 2012). The national standard of healthcare is echoed in patient health promotion,
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It is a well-known fact that there is a distinctive link between patient to nurse ratios in relation to patient morbidity and mortality rates within the hospital setting (Kirwan, et al. 2013). A degree of excellence in patient care is expected among trained healthcare staff, however, this is difficult to obtain when issues such as staffing levels is an on-going crisis in Irish healthcare settings (Joyce, 2007). Concerns about the quality of healthcare are not a new concept for patients, healthcare professionals or the Department of Health. These concerns have come to the fore in recent times due to the reform in healthcare and society. Nurses are a crucial component to the health care system as a whole, which in turn has quite an impact on the outcome of care. Cuts in nursing staff have led to heavier workloads for all healthcare providers, which heightened concerns about the quality of care in acute care hospitals (Clarke, et al. …show more content…
The introducing of these new nursing guidelines has proven to greatly increase positive patient outcomes and patient satisfaction (Al-Abri, et al, 2014). Since the reform of the Irish healthcare system there have been many aspects of nursing altered to better the delivery of care, such as more technological features in documentation, nurses and midwives have also moved from a diploma certificate to a degree style education, hospital conditions and facilities have been improved and nurses that graduated in the 70’s/80’s have been replaced by fresh new graduates that bring a new lease of life and outlook to the healthcare system (Draper, et al. 2008). However appealing all of these changes sound, there is still a crisis in our healthcare system with regard to patient waiting lists, staffing levels at ward based levels and patient overcrowding in the country’s emergency departments (Russel, 2015). Staff planning and patient involvement are two integral steps toward achieving quality improvement principles. Actual improvement in quality of care, however, cannot be achieved through simple monitoring of standards and patient outcomes. The improvements can only be achieved by changing the way care is delivered, through improvement in the processes by which work gets done and services are provided to patients (Stanton, 2004). The goal