Nurses As Leaders For Quality Improvement Initiatives

Nurses as leaders in quality improvement initiatives In the evolving health care environment, a guiding policy and personnel planning is required with respect to the numbers, types and mix of professionals. To overcome the challenges of the existing health care system and practice environment, â€Å"nurses need to be well educated, team oriented, adaptable and able to apply competencies relevant to leadership† (The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health, 2011, p. 270). Health care system is complex and has conflicting interests. Nurse helps the patient and family to connect to their social support systems and help to coordinate care and improve patient outcomes. Evidence shows that high quality nursing care can reduce cost†¦show more content†¦Its goals is to promote quality with professional practice and to recognize excellence in the delivery of nursing services to patients; and, to disseminate best practices in nursing services (Grant, Colello, Rie hl, Dende, 2010). Quality improvement stems from nurses who are technologically knowledgeable and use technology to facilitate seamless care in which the patient is the center of the care and technology should not take time away from the patient. Nurses are the key caregivers in the hospital and have a significant influence on the quality of care provided and ultimately on treatment and patient outcomes. As a result, the hospitals pursuit of high quality patient care is on their ability to utilize nursing resources most effectively, which can become even more challenging due to the anticipated shortage of nurses. As the participation of hospitals in quality improvement initiatives increases, so will the role of nurses because â€Å"Nurses are the largest deliverer of health care in the US† (Draper, Felland, Liebhaber, Melichar, 2008, p.2). Therefore, further research on the characteristics preferred for nurses for their involvement in quality improvement initiative s would be beneficial for positive health care reforms in the hospitals and other settings. Research in this area to evaluate the characteristics most important to nurses in quality