The Institute of Medicine Report Essay
The Institute of Medicine (IOM) report has identified a row of limitations in the health care quality along with some significant errors still present in the health care institutions around the United States. Analysis of this information along with the facts from the nursing literature and the sources pertaining to education, business, and human resources has suggested that the detected issues have many implications to the (APN). This project aims to discuss the implications of the two identified issues of variance of hospital care quality and insufficient preparedness for prevention of infectious diseases spread during the hospital stay to the APN.
Main body
First, the evaluation of facts shows that the issue of variance of hospital care quality is a hurtful problem in todays US health care situation. the difficulty of finding a health care institution where they will be able to acquire high quality help and unfortunately, it is not always the case that this institution will be found near to their house (Healthgrades, 2014). The implication of this issue to the APN is that the advanced practice nurses may become the change agents who will eventually improve the situation for the better (Barker, 2015). The training offered to the advanced practice nurses should prepare them to become the care provision leaders to assist nurses in their teams in offering high quality care in every area to all (Barker, 2015). To do so, the advanced nursing specialists may stick to the business practices and tools widely available nowadays (Wheelen, Hunger, Hoffman, & Bamford, 2015). For instance, they may utilize the Information Technology tools specifically designed to measure performance of each nursing unit and identify the problematic areas where there are oversights. They may also introduce the interactive tools to measure the patient satisfaction over the quality of care received. Then, the acquired information can be analyzed and used to offer guidance to those in the team who to perform well (Moffat, 2011).
Next, the issue of insufficient preparedness for prevention of infectious diseases spread during the hospital stay is another negative development that the advanced practice nurses can overcome. According to Healthgrades (2014), sepsis resulted in an of stay of 8.8 days in 2010 (p. 3). This state of affairs is unacceptable because of its high costs to the population health status and economy. Barker (2015) has stated that mere hand washing procedures done properly while having the direct contact with patients largely decrease the hospital sepsis rates. It is thus the responsibility of the advanced practice nurses to ensure the full compliance of all the nursing personnel to the standards of the hand hygiene.
Conclusion
In sum, the IOM report demonstrates that along with the remarkable achievements in the health care, a number of complicated issues still exist. This project addressed the two identified issues of variance of hospital care quality and insufficient preparedness for prevention of infectious diseases spread during the hospital stay. Analysis of the data available in the scholarly resources of from nursing to business has led to the conclusion that the APN has a vital role in tackling the issues identified above because they are in charge of the medical personnel providing direct care to patients and can improve their performance through the implementation of knowledge received during their training. They can also become the leaders of change inspiring their fellow workers to make advancement in the quality of care they offer to the patients.
