Assessment 2 Instructions: Root-Cause Analysis and Safety Improvement Plan

For this assessment, you can use a supplied template to conduct a root-cause analysis. The completed assessment will be a scholarly paper focusing on a quality or safety issue pertaining to medication administration in a health care setting of your choice as well as a safety improvement plan.

As patient safety concerns continue to be addressed in the health care settings, nurses can play an active role in implementing safety improvement measures and plans. Often root-cause analyses are conducted and safety improvement plans are created to address sentinel or adverse events such as medication errors, patient falls, wrong-site surgery events, and hospital-acquired infections. Performing a root-cause analysis offers a systematic approach for identifying causes of problems, including process and system-check failures. Once the causes of failures have been determined, a safety improvement plan can be developed to prevent recurrences.

Demonstration of Proficiency

By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:

• Competency 1: Analyze the elements of a successful quality improvement initiative.

• Apply evidence-based and best-practice strategies to address a safety issue or sentinel event pertaining to medication administration. ;

• Create a viable, evidence-based safety improvement plan for safe medication administration.

• Competency 2: Analyze factors that lead to patient safety risks.

• Analyze the root cause of a patient safety issue or a specific sentinel event pertaining to medication administration in an organization.

• Competency 3: Identify organizational interventions to promote patient safety.

• Identify existing organizational resources that could be leveraged to improve a safety improvement plan for safe medication administration.

• Competency 5: Apply professional, scholarly, evidence-based strategies to communicate in a manner that supports safe and effective patient care.

• Communicate in writing that is clear, logical, and professional, with correct grammar and spelling, using current APA style.

Scenario

For this assessment, you may choose from the following options as the subject of a root-cause analysis and safety improvement plan:

• The readings, case studies, or a personal experience in which a sentinel event occurred surrounding an issue or concern with medication administration.