Quality Improvement and Patient Safety
Nowadays, in health care, much attention is paid to such issues as quality improvement and patient safety. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) introduced a list of “never events” to clarify the conditions under which transparency and quality outcomes may be observed. According to CMS, nurses, as well as other doctors and health care providers, should follow some guidelines and consider their roles and responsibilities towards meeting and maintaining quality outcomes, standards, performance measures, and competencies. Nurses should take responsibility for patient protection and make sure that infants are never discharged to the wrong people.
It is also necessary to keep an eye on patients so that death or disability is caused because of patient elopement. Besides, patient safety is the responsibility of every nurse, and it is important to check patients’ conditions to be sure that their suicidal attempts to leave some disabilities or problems. In regards to care management “never events”, nurses should also take responsibility for such situations when wrong medication, oxygen, or incompatible blood is given to patients. One of the latest achievements of CMS was the introduction of the reimbursement policy according to which nurses may take leadership roles to prevent avoidable “never events”.
Certain financial reimbursements have been imposed on hospitals and medical workers. It is also declared that Medicare would no longer pay for various costs that may be associated with such events as falls and traumas, catheter-associated urinary tract infections, etc. (Kuhn, 2008). Therefore, the CMS position in regards to the idea of “never events” cannot be identified or understood. It is expected that more changes could happen in a short period.
Conflict Management in Healthcare
Some researchers and journalists admit that female employees work longer and harder than male employees (Ackerman, 2013). Besides, some females say that their male coworkers demonstrate various attitudes to their work and offer solutions without much problem inquiry. However, taking into consideration my observations and experience, I can say that the attitudes to work of women and men are almost the same.
Still, it is hard to have one clear opinion on such an issue because the situations, as well as people, may vary considerably. On the one hand, the solutions of workers of both genders may be without much problem inquiry. Female workers can make some mistakes or fail to complete the whole portion of analysis and evaluation. On the other hand, there may be situations when men make fast decisions and cannot investigate a situation from different aspects.
Still, it is wrong to believe that all male workers base their solutions on weak research and evaluations. I have met several male doctors and nurses, who are ready to talk to patients, clarify the situations, and gather enough information to provide the required portion of help or suggestion. There are also such male workers, who cannot understand how such a sphere as health care can be based on the solutions without much problem inquiry.
Therefore, such observation offered by female workers cannot be defined as accurate. Much depends on people and their attitudes to work but not on their gender. People should not think that gender is the criteria according to which the quality of work has to be evaluated. I cannot agree with such a position and want to believe that all male and female workers can make their solutions on clear grounds and explanations.
References
Ackerman, E. (2013). Superiority of female workers confirmed: Study finds women really do work longer and harder than men. Forbes. Web.
Kuhn, H.B. (2008). Center for Medicaid and State Operations: SMDL#08-004. Web.