Introduction
In your professional life, you will need to find credible evidence to support your decisions and your plans of action. You will want to keep abreast of best practices to help your organization adapt to the ever-changing health care environment. Being adept at research will help you find the information you need. For this assessment, you will review the Assessment Topic Areas media piece and select one of the health care problems or issues to research, which will be a current health care problem or issue faced by a health care organization that is of interest to you
Note: The requirements outlined below correspond to the grading criteria in the scoring guide. At a minimum, be sure to address each point. In addition, you are encouraged to review the performance-level descriptions for each criterion to see how your work will be assessed.
For this assessment, research best practices related to a current health care problem. Your selected problem or issue will be utilized again in Assessment 4. To explore your chosen topic, you should use the first two steps of the Socratic Problem-Solving Approach to aid your critical thinking.
Instruction
View the Assessment Topic Areas media piece and select one of the health care problems or issues in the media piece to research. Write a brief overview of the selected topic. In your overview:
Summarize the health care problem or issue.
Describe your interest in the topic.
Describe any professional experience you have with this topic.
Identify peer-reviewed articles relevant to health care issue or problem.
Conduct a search for scholarly or academic peer-reviewed literature related to the topic and describe the criteria you used to search for articles, including the names of the databases you used. You will select four current scholarly or academic peer-reviewed journal articles published during the past 3–5 years that relate to your topic.
Refer to the NHS-FPX4000: Developing a Health Care Perspective Library Guide to help you locate appropriate references.
Use keywords related to the health care problem or issue you are researching to select relevant articles.
Assess the credibility and explain relevance of the information sources you find.
Determine if the source is from an academic peer-reviewed journal.
Determine if the publication is current.
Determine if information in the academic peer-reviewed journal article is still relevant.
Analyze academic peer-reviewed journal articles using the annotated bibliography organizational format. Provide rationale for inclusion of each selected article. The purpose of an annotated bibliography is to document a list of references along with key information about each one. The detail about the reference is the annotation. Developing this annotated bibliography will create a foundation of knowledge about the selected topic. In your annotated bibliography:
Identify the purpose of the article.
Summarize the information.
Provide rationale for inclusion of each article.
Include the conclusions and findings of the article.
Write your annotated bibliography in a paragraph form. The annotated bibliography should be approximately 150 words (1–3 paragraphs) in length.
List the full reference for the source in APA format (author, date, title, publisher, et cetera) and use APA format for the annotated bibliography.
Make sure the references are listed in alphabetical order, are double-spaced, and use hanging indents.
Summarize what you have learned from developing an annotated bibliography.
Summarize what you learned from your research in a separate paragraph or two at the end of the paper.
List the main points you learned from your research.
Summarize the main contributions of the sources you chose and how they enhanced your knowledge about the topic.
Example Assessment: You may use the following to give you an idea of what a Proficient or higher rating on the scoring guide would look like:
Applying Library Research Skills
With the advent of new technologies and treatment methods, health care organizations
are facing many challenges. Patient safety is one such challenge that needs to be addressed not
only by health care professionals but also by other stakeholders in the business. Ensuring patient
safety is essential for providing quality health care.
As a medical transcriptionist, I am responsible for converting voice-recorded reports of
health care professionals into text. Although I am not directly involved in treating patients, any
errors that occur during the transcription process could result in inaccurate documentation of
medical data. For example, one of my colleagues documented the dosage of Lasix as 400 mg
instead of 40 mg in a discharge summary. When the health care professional who had dictated
the report reviewed it, he was able to spot the error in the dosage and correct it, which helped
prevent the patient from having a dangerous reaction to the incorrect dosage. This incident
helped me realize the importance of preparing accurate documents for ensuring patient safety
and delivering quality care. I developed a keen interest in issues relating to patient safety ever
since.
Identifying Academic Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles Using
Summon, a search engine that searches across Capella University Library’s databases, I accessed
articles that are carried by databases such as ProQuest Central and PubMed Central. I used
keywords such as “health care issues,” “patient safety,” and “quality of care” to search for peerreviewed literature relevant to patient safety. Using the advanced search option, I limited my
search to scholarly and peer-reviewed journals, choosing “journal article” as the publication type,
“medicine” and “nursing” as the subjects, and articles published within the last five years as the
publication date range.
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Assessing Credibility and Relevance of Information Sources
To ensure credibility, I selected peer-reviewed journal articles that were published within
the past five years. I made sure that the selected sources were published by authors who were
well-known in the field of health care and had extensive professional experience.
To ensure that the chosen sources of information were relevant to the topic, I confirmed
that they contained accepted facts and opinions on issues relating to patient safety and quality
care. I also checked whether each information source had a clearly defined purpose and
contained pertinent information about patient safety and quality care.
Annotated Bibliography
Kronick, R., Arnold, S., & Brady, J. (2016, August 2). Improving safety for hospitalized patients:
Much progress but many challenges remain. The JAMA Network, 316(5), 489–490.
https://jamanetwork-com.library.capella.edu/journals/jama/fullarticle/2528945 This
article provides a viewpoint on the progress that hospitals have made toward reducing
patient harm and understand the factors that have led to this progress. The authors cite
reports released by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the
National Healthcare Safety Network (NHSN) to analyze the occurrence of issues relating
to patient safety in hospitals. The authors hypothesize that improvement in health care
safety for hospitalized patients may have been possible because of reasons such as an
awareness of the importance of improving safety culture with evidence-based
suggestions. The authors conclude by expressing the need for finding ways to maintain or
accelerate the rate of decline in adverse events relating to patient harm. They believe that
investing in patient safety research programs and ensuring that patient safety remains a
high priority for hospital leadership teams can help reduce the number of adverse events.
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This article is relevant to patient safety because it examines evidence of reduction in
patient harms in hospitals and offers approaches to reduce such harms.
Morris, S., Otto, N. C., & Golemboski, K. (2013). Improving patient safety and healthcare
quality in the 21st century—Competencies required of future medical laboratory science
practitioners. Clinical Laboratory Science, 26(4), 200–204. https://searchproquestcom.library.capella.edu/docview/1530677721/fulltextPDF/CF6F9C5B900402CP
Q/1?acc ountid=27965
In this article, the authors express their concern about health care professionals,
particularly medical laboratory science (MLS) practitioners, being insufficiently trained
to achieve the five core competencies that the Institute of Medicine (IOM) identified in
2002. The authors discuss ways to incorporate patient safety practices and concepts in the
MLS curricula to ensure that future MLS practitioners are well-versed in the
abovementioned competencies identified by the IOM. The authors conclude that by
focusing on the aims and competencies identified by the IOM, future practitioners will be
better equipped to deal with patient safety concerns while practicing MLS. This article
was chosen because it offers a solution for dealing with patient safety issues and explains
how patient safety concepts can be incorporated in the curricula for courses pertaining to
health care, such as MLS, to enable future health care practitioners to provide effective
health care.
Parand, A., Dopson, S., Renz, A., & Vincent, C. (2014). The role of hospital managers in quality
and patient safety: A systematic review. BMJ Open, 4(9). http://dx.doi.org/
10.1136/bmjopen-2014-005055
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This article provides a systematic review of available empirical literature to understand
how health care managers are involved in delivering quality health care and ensuring
patient safety. Based on the literature review, the authors suggest that board-level
managers should spend more than 25% of their time on patient safety and quality to
ensure positive outcomes; however, most of the reviewed studies indicate that they spend
much less time than that. The authors also present a quality management input process
output (IPO) model, a framework that will help managers function effectively and
achieve health care quality and safety. The authors conclude that there is a need to make
certain changes in hospitals to ensure the active involvement of managers in quality
improvement. The article is relevant to patient safety because it discusses the role of
health care managers in influencing patient safety and quality care outcomes and also
proposes a model to help managers understand this role.
Ulrich, B., & Kear, T. (2014). Patient safety and patient safety culture: Foundations of excellent
health care delivery. Nephrology Nursing Journal, 41(5), 447–456, 505.
https://searchproquestcom.library.capella.edu/docview/1617932572/fulltextPDF/1486CC
30B3624B3CPQ/1?ac countid=27965
This article provides a general understanding of the concepts of patient safety and patient
safety culture. The authors explain that the health care system is complex and patient
safety is the responsibility of every individual in a health care organization. They discuss
some tools that can be used to measure patient safety culture, for example, the Safety
Attitudes Questionnaire and the Patient Safety Culture Improvement Tool. They also
examine several strategies to encourage a patient safety culture, such as ensuring that
patient safety is given as much importance as other core business functions. This article
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was chosen because it offers strategies for preventing adverse events relating to patient
safety and emphasizes the importance of teamwork within a health care organization to
ensure safe patient care.
Learnings from the Research
I gathered important facts and scholarly opinions about patient safety by going through
peer-reviewed journal articles. This research enriched my knowledge about patient safety. For
example, after reading the article on improving safety for hospitalized patients by Kronick et al.
(2016), I learned about patient harms (such as catheter-associated urinary tract infections and
pressure ulcers) that I was unaware of before this research. Further, by creating an annotated
bibliography, I was able to build a repository of scholarly resources relating to patient safety.
This will make it easier for me to choose relevant resources while writing the paper on issues
concerning patient safety.
Socratic Problem-Solving Approach
The Socratic Method is a teaching style in which teachers ask students questions designed to stimulate more complete thinking and deeper insight. It also relates to the steps of performing scientific research. When the Socratic approach is applied, students are prompted to look more closely at your ideas, question your assumptions and accepted premises, and view your choices through a rigorous lens.
Apply the Socratic approach
Applying the Socratic approach to problem solving helps you identify gaps and improve your thinking when writing papers or completing projects. The questions may be used to spark new insights when responding to discussion topics and posts.
Identify the elements of the problem, issue, or question
Analyze, define, and frame the problem, issue, or question
Consider solutions, responses, or answers
Choose a solution, response, or answer
Implement your choice
Evaluate the results
Socratic problem-solving references
Paul, R., & Elder., L. (2006) The miniature guide to c
Topic 3: Medication Errors
Short Description:
A medication error is a preventable adverse effect of a patient taking the wrong medication or dosage, whether or not it is evident or harmful to the patient. Medication errors can be a source of serious patient harm, including death.
Potential Intervention Approaches:
– Medical staff education
– Packaging improvements
– Patient medication safety training
Keywords for Articles:
medication administration, medication errors, medication safety
Additional Requirements
Your assessment should also meet the following requirements:
Length: 2–4 typed, double-spaced pages, not including the title page and reference page.
Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12 point.
APA tutorial: Use the APA Style Paper Tutorial [DOCX] for guidance.
Written communication: Write clearly and logically, with correct use of spelling, grammar, punctuation, and mechanics.
Content: Provide a title page and reference page following APA style.
References: Use at least four scholarly or academic peer-reviewed journal articles.
APA format: Follow current APA guidelines for in-text citation of outside sources in the body of your paper and also on the reference page.
Competencies Measured
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and scoring guide criteria:
Competency 2: Apply scholarly information through critical thinking to solve problems in the field of health care.
Assess the credibility and relevance of information sources.
Analyze academic peer-reviewed journal articles using the annotated bibliography organizational format.
Summarize what was learned from developing an annotated bibliography.
Competency 4: Write for a specific audience, in appropriate tone and style, in accordance with Capella’s writing standards.
Apply academic peer reviewed journal articles relevant to the health care problem or issue being researched.
Produce text with minimal grammatical, usage, spelling, and mechanical errors.
Integrate into text appropriate use of scholarly sources, evidence, and citation style.
