Implementing a Patient Safety or Quality Improvement Project (Patient Safety V)

In this module, learners will understand the patient safety risk of Venous Thromboembolism in our patient populations and its impact on patient outcomes. Learners will see what can be done to protect patients from this almost entirely preventable harm event including assessing surveillance bias, stakeholder engagement and nursing education to improve quality of care to reduce VTE risk. The learner will also be able to develop a plan to identify the best evidence to support their work when competing national organizations have competing recommendations.

In this module we will review the historical perspective of human subject's research and quality improvement research. The learner will become familiar with the history of the IRB in large scale quality improvement initiatives and identify what should be submitted to the IRB before beginning a quality improvement or patient safety project. Further, the learner will become familiar with what can and can't be shared outside the organization without the Risk Management office providing consent.

In this module we will introduce you to a quality improvement project that we implemented in two adult Intensive Care Units, to reduce Central line associated blood stream infections. The learner will develop an understanding of using the Translating Evidence into Practice model into action in developing a technical component to improve patient safety. Learners will become familiar with the Comprehensive Unit Based Safety program (CUSP) and the adaptive work used to implement the quality improvement initiative and change management methods that help achieve success.