Dimensions of Patient-Centered Care
It is known that the Picker Institute currently identifies eight dimensions of care: respecting patients’ needs; communication, information, and education; integration and coordination of services; providing emotional support; physical comfort; making family members involved; continuity and transition; services’ accessibility. Eventually, each of the named dimensions contributes to PCC differently. Nevertheless, they all arrive as essential components of care delivery and form a formidable background for the improvement of care quality.
As Berghout et al. (2015) highlight in their research, maintaining PCC in different settings requires prioritization of the available dimensions. Treating patients with proper respect is the major condition for normal patient-nurse communication. An educational aspect appears to be the second in the list of dimensions since patients need to be well-informed of the following interventions. Integration and coordination should come right after the education for better comprehension of the material.
Offering emotional support and providing physical comfort are the next two dimensions to pay close attention to. Regarding the transition and the accessibility of services, these dimensions are usually referred to after all the educational aspects have been considered. Finally, the involvement of family members arrives as the least important aspect since services can be provided without their presence.
Quality and Safety Practices
There is no denial of the statement that patient safety appears to be a vital component of quality healthcare. The adoption of the Quality and Safety Education for Nurses (QSEN) is currently viewed as one of the major steps forward in the enhancement of both nursing practices and patient safety (Dolansky & Moore, 2013).
As Flores, Hickenlooper, and Saxton (2013) point out, “with the ever-increasing demand to provide safe, quality care and document its achievements, it is imperative that hospitals have a pool of graduate nurses prepared to participate in quality improvement upon hiring” (p. 1).
Maintaining a safe operational environment carries a huge meaning in the matters of healthcare and vigilance for patients in this case. However, the improvement of patient safety and the quality of services is impossible without learning new material through constant access to practical information. When practicing evidence-based medicine, nurses not only raise their professional skills but demonstrate a required level of compassion for those clients who require a hospital-based treatment. The improvement of the environment they operate in may contribute to raising the overall clinic’s performance.
Another notable fact is that by providing nurses with all the required information related to quality and safety practices hospitals reduce the level of turnover and eliminate the problem of understaffing (Dolansky & Moore, 2013). It is logical to assume that a well-educated and trained specialist finds it easier to adapt to working environments compared to the one feeling the lack of knowledge or practical skills. The need to improve the U.S. health system has been discussed by the Institute of Medicine for about a decade now. By providing access to practical knowledge and introducing new educational programs for nurses hospitals across the USA could have that issue resolved immediately.
References
Berghout, M., van Exel, J., Leensvaart, L., & Cramm, J. M. (2015). Healthcare professionals’ views on patient-centered care in hospitals. BMC health services research, 15(1), 385-401.
Dolansky, M. A., & Moore, S. M. (2013). Quality and safety education for nurses (QSEN): The key is systems thinking. OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 18(3), 71-80.
Flores, D., Hickenlooper, G., & Saxton, R. (2013). An academic practice partnership: Helping new registered nurses to advance quality and patient safety. OJIN: The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing, 18(3), 1-11.