Discussion
Quality improvement for healthcare providers is a complicated multi-level process with many different areas indicated in need of change. As the name suggests it repairs one level of care to meet the standards of an entirely different level of care altogether. Quality improvement comes in many forms. The most obvious of these are the improvements to personal outcomes, care processes, organizational issues, and administrative factors in general. Quality improvement can also result in decreased cost, improved workflow, and a host of other benefits including better care results to the whole. A number of different tools are used during quality improvement including questioning why and root cause analysis. One article suggests a good use for this type of analysis due to the need to continually perform root cause analysis to explore the functions of quality improvement.
Another article presents a rather compelling report that highlights current care efforts to comply with best practice guidelines. The quality improvement report sponsored by certain government organizations is meant to support care offered to those with poverty, inequality, and disadvantaged communities. Other than that, no other descriptive statistics have been presented in the report. This article continues to examine the room for improvement in the current implementation of person-centered care. It is considered a quality improvement piece because no further evidence is looked at or considered at this level. Instead, it deals primarily with proposed changes to improve the quality of practice to the best possible level.
On the other hand, nursing research is used to describe investigation into the events surrounding care that is given from a perspective of health. One possibility is the use of nursing research to describe personal behavior and responses to care. Another use of nursing research is defining care that appropriately deals with these responses as a whole. Many of these nursing variables range from unknown to well-known and in some cases have to be found either through a search of the literature or through investigation into certain personal habits. This investigation can take many forms and can appear as a poll, query, or some sort of purpose for the use of which data has been collected at first. Two other issues noted in nursing research are relevance and validity. This means that the nursing research must appropriately address the problem at hand as well as answer the questions posed. Furthermore, the research also has to be able to be true everywhere. Thus, it is considered easily generalizable. A good example of nursing research is the single quantitative study in which a limited number of participants have been included as well. In this case, the number of things compared are two varying concepts of person-centered care. The nursing research process begins with a question or problem much like this one. Then a hypothesis is formulated and the study designed to answer the question appropriately. Data is then gathered and synthesized to accurately describe the issue and account for the variations in observable data. In the article mentioned, data is gathered and synthesized to answer the appropriate question. It is a review of a nursing guideline, however rather than a set of numerical data results as a whole. In this case, the nursing practice guideline ought to be considered descriptive of a person-centered care environment instead of definitive rather.
One article examines the barriers and facilitators of implementing person-centered care through a review of current literature. The question is posed whether the use of person-centered care in benefit-harm assessments would inform best practice guidelines. Stakeholders are first gathered to assess their opinions and feelings on relevant clinical issues important to them through benefit-harm assessments. Next, results from randomized control trials and other studies on the topic are selected for comparison. Then comparison of the benefit-harm assessments and associated research study results occurs along with confirmation bias testing as towards respondents. From there, data is then extrapolated and plotted to ascertain whether sufficient thresholds of clinical benefit or harm has been looked at so far. This article exemplifies the use of nursing research when put to good effect as at first. In person-centered care, the research describes the current state of care across the wider area of nursing practice in general.
Finally, evidence-based practice comes last as it is applied to real-world clinical situations. Evidence-based practice can be considered the sum total of nursing research and quality improvement as applied to personal care. Evidenced-based practice contains both decision-making and current nursing research. Practice of this quality requires greater synthesis than just asking why five times or performing root cause analysis. Rather it considers the complex interrelationships of human behavior, nursing care, personal outcomes, and interactions. The implementation of evidence-based care has been shown to reduce costs, improve outcomes, and promote general health and well-being in all settings of professionalism in general. While it has been proven as effective as research and quality improvement if not more so, it has not attained the same level of professional acceptance just yet. Therefore, evidence-based practice is still coming into being in many professional settings. The article selected is a good example of evidence-based practice applied to nursing research. Nursing research is carefully selected and synthesized as applied to current practice. This is considered evidence-based along with other real-world observations and applications to professional settings. Additionally, opportunity is given within the article for application of knowledge.
A recent article examined the barriers and facilitators of implementing person-centered care through a review of literature currently available there on the matter. Multiple databases had been cross checked for accuracy throughout the duration of the article mentioned. However, no summary of search findings or methods were presented at first. Exclusion factors include non-keyword searches, languages other than English, and lack of open source articles. Neither hypothesis testing nor parameter estimation is mentioned in the report which are often important for quantitative research in general. As it is a review of recently published studies from an evidence-based perspective, there are no associated effects size or reported statistics. Furthermore, no associated tests have been used. This article is considered to be an examination of evidence-based practice because the current evidence is being examined and synthesized to guide care. It also holds application to the person-centered care discussion through its use of model-based communication also with guidance.