Summary
The quality improvement project is crucial in providing ICU health care services. Hospital facilities deal with delicate patients, whose health can be jeopardized further if they receive poor services. Therefore, the clinics need to provide proper services that can reduce pressure ulcers. However, numerous stakeholders, such as hospital management, nurses, patients, the general public, and the government, should be actively involved in achieving the set objectives.
Stakeholders
Hospital is one of the stakeholders that the quality improvement project will impact. The hospitals provide ICU facilities where patients who need critical care are often admitted. As a result, the patients, especially those who have long stayed, will acquire pressure ulcers, thus lowering the value of health. Consequently, the value enhancement project will directly influence hospitals positively since they will provide the necessary required care.
Nurses will also be affected by the quality improvement project aimed at eliminating the threat of PU. Critical care nurses are the primary caregivers in the ICU, and consequently, they interact with the patients daily. According to Beal and Smith (2016), the nurses’ actions determine the quality of care that inpatients receive. Accordingly, they are the main stakeholders in regard to the PU.
ICU patients are major stakeholders in the quality improvement project. Every patient in ICU hopes to get decent effective health services. However, their stay in ICU services is usually affected by numerous life-threatening health conditions, primarily the PU, due to the increased number of hours they spend in the beds and machines (Kottner et al., 2019). Therefore, the program will certainly influence the patients’ health since it will reduce the infections experienced.
The general public is also highly involved in the plan. The public generally relies on the hospitals for medication. According to Gefen and Ousey (2020), hospitals should ensure that their services meet the public’s expectations since their main goal is to provide health services to the community. Hence, a plan will impact the public since it will enhance society’s wellbeing.
Another stakeholder in the program is the government. Every government aims to provide adequate health services to the citizens. Thus, they have a particular interest in how healthcare is administered in private and public facilities. Even though they may not be directly involved, they regulate the sector through policies and rules that the hospitals should follow. Moreover, the government advocates for suitable care for the vulnerable population.
Resources and Budget
To effectively implement the project, such sources as human, finance, and time will be required. Even though the budget will burden the hospital finances, it will ensure that quality improvement project is achieved, hence improving the health of the patients. However, such activities as community awareness will not require any resources since they will be voluntary work. Nevertheless, research will need extensive resources because it will involve time, funds, and personnel.
Table 1: Budget.
Action plan
Every activity will be designated a duration in which they are expected to be completed once the project commences. Although some will take up to six months, most of the programs will be conducted repeatedly to achieve the set objectives. The table below provides a time frame for executing the project.
In conclusion, a quality improvement project can be practical if there are enough budget, resource allocation, and all stakeholders are fully involved in the process. The stakeholders range from the hospitals to the patients themselves. However, nurses are critical to the implementation of this process since they are the primary caregivers. They interact with the patients in the hospitals and at their homes. Therefore, they are crucial in ensuring that quality improvement project is effectively implemented.
References
Beal, M. E., & Smith, K. (2016). Inpatient pressure ulcer prevalence in an acute care hospital using evidence‐based practice. Worldviews on Evidence‐Based Nursing, 13(2), 112-117. Web.
Gefen, A., & Ousey, K. (2020). Update to device-related pressure ulcers: SECURE prevention. COVID-19, face masks, and skin damage. Journal of Wound Care, 29(5), 245-259. Web.
Kottner, J., Cuddigan, J., Carville, K., Balzer, K., Berlowitz, D., Law, S., Litchford, M., Mitchell, P., Moore, Z., Pittman, J., Sigaudo-Roussel, D., Yee, C. Y., & Haesler, E. (2019). Prevention and treatment of pressure ulcers/injuries: The protocol for the second update of the international Clinical Practice Guideline 2019. Journal of Tissue Viability, 28(2), 51-58. Web.