Root-Cause Analysis and Improvement Plan
Overview
Nursing practice is governed by health care policies and procedures as well as state and national regulations developed to prevent problems. It is critical for nurses to participate in gathering and analyzing data to determine causes of patient safety issues, in solving problems, and in implementing quality improvements.
For this assignment, you may choose from the following options as the subject of a root-cause analysis and safety improvement plan. You need only select one option:
- The specific safety concern identified in your previous assignment.
- The Vila Health: Root-Cause Analysis and Safety Improvement Planning simulation.
- One of the Unit 4 case studies (linked in Resources).
- A personal practice experience in which a sentinel event occurred.
Instructions
- The purpose of this assignment is to demonstrate your understanding of and ability to analyze a root cause of a specific safety concern in a health care setting. You will create a plan to improve the safety of patients related to the concern based on the results of your analysis, using the literature and professional best practices as well as the existing resources at your chosen health care setting to provide a rationale for your plan.
- Use the Root Cause Analysis and Safety Improvement Plan template linked in Resources to help you to stay organized and concise.
- Additionally, be sure that your plan addresses the following, which corresponds to the grading criteria in the scoring guide. Please study the scoring guide carefully so you understand what is needed for a distinguished score.
- Analyze the root cause of a patient safety issue or a specific sentinel event in an organization.
- Apply evidence-based and best-practice strategies to address the safety issue or sentinel event.
- Create a viable, evidence-based safety improvement plan.
- Identify existing organizational resources that could be leveraged to improve your plan.
- Communicate in writing that is clear, logical, and professional, with correct grammar and spelling, using current APA style.
Example assignment
- You may use the assignment example, linked in the resources, to give you an idea of what a Proficient or higher rating on the scoring guide would look like.
Additional Requirements
- Length of submission: Use the provided template to create a 4–6 page root-cause analysis and safety improvement plan. A title page is not required but you must include a reference list as per the template.
- Number of references: Cite a minimum of 3 sources of scholarly or professional evidence that support your findings and considerations. Resources should be no more than 5 years old.
- APA formatting: Format references and citations according to current APA style.