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(86) Mind your Ps & Qs: Professional Empowerment with Quality Improvement

Location: Exhibit Hall D
Title: Mind your Ps & Qs: Professional Empowerment with Quality Improvement

Abstract :

Purpose: Create a culture of continuous Quality Improvement (QI) & provide an interprofessional, collaborative model to impact patient outcomes. The aim was to increase & empower RN engagement in QI & establish space for RN voices & perspectives to influence how the work is done. With increased RN participation, transformational leadership drove patient outcomes with more momentum. RNs are active members of interprofessional QI teams creating innovative solutions to decrease CLABSI rates, decrease procedural wait times, increase flu shot compliance, & reduce admissions for fever. These RN leaders created a culture shift, shaping long-term professional practice.

Quality Improvement: This initiative engaged a QI coach & a data analyst to coach RNs on the QI process using the Model for Improvement framework. RNs received ongoing education on QI methodology, tools, measures, & data display. Strategies & data were reviewed at monthly meetings. RNs identified patient care workflow issues that could be addressed with QI. Interprofessional teams were formed for each project promoting collaboration & shared decision-making, while instructing on the components of QI work. With the guidance of the QI professionals, RNs were encouraged to share the process & patient outcomes from their projects by submitting abstracts to applicable conferences, publications, and/or presentations.

Findings: Since adding QI professionals to our department in 2016, we have steadily increased the number of RN-involved QI projects from 2 to 23, a 1050% increase. We have submitted 45 abstracts & had 39 submissions accepted for publication or presentation, sharing our improvement work nationally. Because they often see the entire process, RNs are poised to recognize gaps in care & drive collaborative change. Due to their increased QI knowledge & skills, our improvement work continues to be shaped by RNs who brainstorm change ideas and serve as “boots on the ground” for the actual testing.