DNP Role Development for Doctoral Advanced Nursing Practice, Second Edition

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206 ■ II: ROLES FOR DOCTORAL ADVANCED NURSING PRACTICE


National Strategy for Quality Improvement in Health Care (NQS) that would set priori-
ties, guidelines, and standards to guide this effort. AHRQ was charged with leadership
of this effort. The NQS was developed to promote quality health care to meet the needs
of patients, families, and communities by guiding the actions of all those who deliver and
pay for care. This strategy supports the incorporation of evidence- based research and sci-
entific advances in practice standards for clinical care, public health, and health care deliv-
ery. Stakeholders across the health care system, including federal, state, local agencies as
well as providers, patients and payers, were involved in their development. Measureable
improvements in outcomes of care and in the overall health of Americans are the desired
outcomes. Table 8.1 describes the NQS aims and priorities (AHRQ, 2012).
In support of improving patient safety through expanded evidence- based practice
and consistent QI, the AHRQ provided health care leaders and providers with access to
population- focused clinical practice guidelines, updated research, and quality reports.
AHRQ’s mission of “Producing Evidence to Improve Care” is well demonstrated in the
depth of information and support provided to support DNP professional development
in building QI programs.
An example of this support is AHRQ’s (2014a) Quality Indicators (QIs) Toolkit ,
which is designed to support organizations in developing and implementing qual-
ity and patient safety improvement programs in hospitals and which are built on
a common set of measurements. This approach will provide a consistent measure-
ment across programs allowing comparability system to system. The toolkit is free of
charge and measures of hospital quality and patient safety were developed through
analysis of available hospital inpatient administrative data. Hospitals across the
country contributed to their development and have used QIs to identify potential


TABLE 8.1 National Quality Strategy


Aims
Better Care : Improve overall quality by making health care more patient- centered, reliable,
accessible, and safe.
Healthy People/ Healthy Communities : Improve the health of the U.S. population
by supporting proven interventions to address behavioral, social, and environmental
determinants of health in addition to delivering higher quality care.
Affordable Care : Reduce the cost of quality health care for individuals, families, employers,
and government.
To advance these aims, the NQS focuses on six priorities that address the most common
health concerns that Americans face:


  1. Patient Safety : Making care safer by reducing harm caused in the delivery of care.

  2. Person- Centered Care : Ensuring that each person and family are engaged as partners in
    their care.

  3. Care Coordination : Promoting effective communication and coordination of care.

  4. Effective Treatment : Promoting the most effective prevention and treatment practices for
    the leading causes of mortality, starting with cardiovascular disease.

  5. Healthy Living : Working with communities to promote wide use of best practices to
    enable healthy living.

  6. Care Affordability : Making quality care more affordable for individuals, families,
    employers, and governments by developing and spreading new health care delivery
    models.


NQS, National Quality Strategy.

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