Discussion: Nurse/Patient Empowerment

As a nurse, you are the individual who has the ability to empower patients in the decision-making process pertaining to their health care. In addition, you are in a unique position to empower your nursing colleagues to improve job satisfaction and use performance indicator data from dashboards to effect social change.

In this week’s Learning Resources, you examined both the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQI) and the key role nurses play as advocates for patient rights. To assist nurses in being better prepared for this role, programs such as Patient Care Partnership provide guidance.

For this Discussion, you will analyze the use of quality improvement data and discuss how this data can help empower both patients and nurses. Review the required resource Patient Care Partnership information (https://www.aha.org/system/files/2018-01/aha-patient-care-partnership.pdf). In addition, reflect on the media presentation and the information shared by Ms. Manna on patients’ rights.

By Day 3

Respond to the following:

What are the best strategies the nurse can employ to empower patients and support patients’ rights to improve quality of care? (Some considerations to keep in mind may include: providing information on effectiveness, risks, and benefits of alternative treatments.)

In what ways can NDNQI data from dashboards or quality improvement data be used to support nurse empowerment in practice?

How has your institution empowered the nursing staff through the use of quality improvement data?

Provide an example of how you have personally empowered either a patient or a fellow nurse.

Support your response with references from the professional nursing literature.

Note Initial Post: A 3-paragraph response. Be sure to use evidence from the readings and include in-text citations. Utilize essay-level writing practice and skills, including the use of transitional material and organizational frames. Avoid quotes; paraphrase to incorporate evidence into your own writing. A reference list is required. Use the most current evidence (usually ≤ 5 years old). Please note: the required reading from Brown & Donaldson is from 2008. Typically, references should be within five to seven years of publication. However, this publication is considered a classical research reference pertaining to quality improvement and the use of data sets.