"Nurses play a vital role in improving the safety and quality of patient car -- not only in the hospital or ambulatory treatment facility, but also of community-based care and the care performed by family members. Nurses need know what proven techniques and interventions they can use to enhance patient outcomes. To address this need, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), with additional funding from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, has prepared this comprehensive, 1,400-page, handbook for nurses on patient safety and quality -- Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses. (AHRQ Publication No. 08-0043)." - online AHRQ blurb, http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nurseshdbk/
The Institute of Medicine study Crossing the Quality Chasm (2001) recommended that an interdisciplinary summit be held to further reform of health professions education in order to enhance quality and patient safety. Health Professions Education: A Bridge to Quality is the follow up to that summit, held in June 2002, where 150 participants across disciplines and occupations developed ideas about how to integrate a core set of competencies into health professions education. These core competencies include patient-centered care, interdisciplinary teams, evidence-based practice, quality improvement, and informatics. This book recommends a mix of approaches to health education improvement, including those related to oversight processes, the training environment, research, public reporting, and leadership. Educators, administrators, and health professionals can use this book to help achieve an approach to education that better prepares clinicians to meet both the needs of patients and the requirements of a changing health care system.
Advances in medical, biomedical and health services research have reduced the level of uncertainty in clinical practice. Clinical practice guidelines (CPGs) complement this progress by establishing standards of care backed by strong scientific evidence. CPGs are statements that include recommendations intended to optimize patient care. These statements are informed by a systematic review of evidence and an assessment of the benefits and costs of alternative care options. Clinical Practice Guidelines We Can Trust examines the current state of clinical practice guidelines and how they can be improved to enhance healthcare quality and patient outcomes. Clinical practice guidelines now are ubiquitous in our healthcare system. The Guidelines International Network (GIN) database currently lists more than 3,700 guidelines from 39 countries. Developing guidelines presents a number of challenges including lack of transparent methodological practices, difficulty reconciling conflicting guidelines, and conflicts of interest. Clinical Practice Guidelines We Can Trust explores questions surrounding the quality of CPG development processes and the establishment of standards. It proposes eight standards for developing trustworthy clinical practice guidelines emphasizing transparency; management of conflict of interest ; systematic review-guideline development intersection; establishing evidence foundations for and rating strength of guideline recommendations; articulation of recommendations; external review; and updating. Clinical Practice Guidelines We Can Trust shows how clinical practice guidelines can enhance clinician and patient decision-making by translating complex scientific research findings into recommendations for clinical practice that are relevant to the individual patient encounter, instead of implementing a one size fits all approach to patient care. This book contains information directly related to the work of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), as well as various Congressional staff and policymakers. It is a vital resource for medical specialty societies, disease advocacy groups, health professionals, private and international organizations that develop or use clinical practice guidelines, consumers, clinicians, and payers.
This volume, developed by the Observatory together with OECD, provides an overall conceptual framework for understanding and applying strategies aimed at improving quality of care. Crucially, it summarizes available evidence on different quality strategies and provides recommendations for their implementation. This book is intended to help policy-makers to understand concepts of quality and to support them to evaluate single strategies and combinations of strategies.
Getting the right diagnosis is a key aspect of health care - it provides an explanation of a patient's health problem and informs subsequent health care decisions. The diagnostic process is a complex, collaborative activity that involves clinical reasoning and information gathering to determine a patient's health problem. According to Improving Diagnosis in Health Care, diagnostic errors-inaccurate or delayed diagnoses-persist throughout all settings of care and continue to harm an unacceptable number of patients. It is likely that most people will experience at least one diagnostic error in their lifetime, sometimes with devastating consequences. Diagnostic errors may cause harm to patients by preventing or delaying appropriate treatment, providing unnecessary or harmful treatment, or resulting in psychological or financial repercussions. The committee concluded that improving the diagnostic process is not only possible, but also represents a moral, professional, and public health imperative. Improving Diagnosis in Health Care, a continuation of the landmark Institute of Medicine reports To Err Is Human (2000) and Crossing the Quality Chasm (2001), finds that diagnosis-and, in particular, the occurrence of diagnostic errorsâ€"has been largely unappreciated in efforts to improve the quality and safety of health care. Without a dedicated focus on improving diagnosis, diagnostic errors will likely worsen as the delivery of health care and the diagnostic process continue to increase in complexity. Just as the diagnostic process is a collaborative activity, improving diagnosis will require collaboration and a widespread commitment to change among health care professionals, health care organizations, patients and their families, researchers, and policy makers. The recommendations of Improving Diagnosis in Health Care contribute to the growing momentum for change in this crucial area of health care quality and safety.
The dramatic increase in chronic conditions, including noncommunicable diseases, mental disorders, and certain communicable diseases such as HIV/AIDS demands creative action. The WHO created this document to alert decision-makers throughout the world about these important changes in global health, and to present health care solutions for managing this rising burden.
In recent years, trust has enjoyed increasing interest from a wide range of parties, including organizations, policymakers, and the media. Perennially linked to turbulence and scandals, the damaging and rebuilding of trust is a contemporary concern affecting all areas of society. Comprising six thematic sections, The Routledge Companion to Trust provides a comprehensive survey of trust research. With contributions from international experts, this volume examines the major topics and emerging areas within the field, including essays on the foundations, levels and theories of trust. It also examines trust repair and explores trust in settings such as healthcare, finance, food supply chains, and the internet. The Routledge Companion to Trust is an extensive reference work which will be a vital resource to researchers and practitioners across the fields of management and organizational studies, behavioural economics, psychology, cultural anthropology, political science and sociology.
Does trust still matter in health care and who does it matter to? Have trust relations changed in the 'New' NHS? What does trust mean to patients, clinicians and managers? In the NHS trust has traditionally played an important part in the relationships between its three key actors: the state, health care practitioners and patients. However, in recent years the environments in which these relationships operate have been subject to considerable change as the NHS has been modernised. Patients are now expected to play a more active role, both in self-managing their illness and in choice of care provider and clinicians are expected to work in teams and in partnership with managers. This unique book explores the importance of trust, how it is lost and won and the extent to which trust relationships in health care may have changed. The book combines theoretical and empirical analysis, while also examining the role of policy. Calnan and Rowe analyse data collected from interviews with patients, health care professionals and managers in primary care and acute care settings. Among the issues covered are: The importance of trust to their relationships What constitutes high and low trust behaviour The changing nature of trust relations between patients, clinicians and managers How trust can be built and sustained How interpersonal trust affects institutional trust Trust Matters in Health Care is key reading for policy makers, health care professionals and managers in the public and private sector, and a useful resource for educators and students within health and social care and management studies.
Compassion and caring are at the very heart of nursing – possibly that’s why you were attracted to the nursing profession in the first place. But what does compassionate caring really mean in nursing practice? Compassion, Caring and Communication: Skills for Nursing Practice is a practical book that guides you through the complex dimensions of caring. It considers the ways in which you connect with patients, families and co-workers, and the long-lasting impact of emotions and feelings. Using real-life narratives, case studies and reflection activities, the authors demonstrate how you can develop and maintain the empathy and communication skills you need to create effective, compassionate and caring partnerships. New to the second edition: Comprehensively updated throughout to reflect and highlight current professional pressures and public concerns around nursing practice. Includes a broader range of relevant case studies, discussions and scenarios to engage students and qualified nurses at all levels. Contains new content about the impacts of recent government reports and policies on nursing care, developing an awareness of contemporary issues and debates. The BOND caring framework has been revised and updated alongside new ‘caring indicators’, to support the development of compassionate caring skills. All references have been updated using the latest sources and evidence-based studies.
In the realm of health care, privacy protections are needed to preserve patients' dignity and prevent possible harms. Ten years ago, to address these concerns as well as set guidelines for ethical health research, Congress called for a set of federal standards now known as the HIPAA Privacy Rule. In its 2009 report, Beyond the HIPAA Privacy Rule: Enhancing Privacy, Improving Health Through Research, the Institute of Medicine's Committee on Health Research and the Privacy of Health Information concludes that the HIPAA Privacy Rule does not protect privacy as well as it should, and that it impedes important health research.
