RLDickman

Has anyone experienced a successful approach for helping nurses stay proficient with a wide variety of patient bed/mattress types?

I am interested in hearing from others about successful practices in preventing pressure ulcers in high-risk hospitalized patients (ICU, ventilator, pressors) or about any root cause analysis tools/findings in regards to pressure ulcers with this patient population.

Hello, Eliza79 -- I made the switch from bedside nurse to QI/PI and have loved it. Some of the challenges I faced were getting used to a Monday through Friday schedule, figuring out what to wear, and getting up to speed with the multitude of quality/performance standards that I was now responsible to track, teach, and improve. I also had to learn a lot about QI/PI tools and principles. The roles and responsibilities of QI/PI professionals vary from institution to institution, so I am not sure what would be most helpful to support you in your new role, but the following organizations had resources (websites, publications, guides/tools, or education offerings) that were helpful to me: the quality/safety division of my state hospital association, my local QIN (Quality Improvement Network), the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), Quality Net, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI), the National Association for Healthcare Quality (NAHQ), and the National Patient Safety Foundation (NPSF). Before you lead a quality/performance improvement project, be sure to become familiar with basic QI/PI tools and you will save yourself a lot of re-work. At a minimum, these would include: root cause analysis, action planning, and PSDA cycles (plan-do-study-act) in small tests of change. You will also find it helpful to hone your communication skills (teaching/presentation, active listening, critical conversations) and become familiar with the concept of Just Culture. Learn how to understand and manage data. Also, many hospitals are utilizing house-wide QI/PI models (i.e. Lean Six Sigma), so be sure to learn your hospital's approach and become familiar with its principles. QI/PI work is very rewarding. While you may no longer get the rewards that come from direct patient/family contact, it can be very fulfilling to lead improvement projects that bring positive change to your organization or improve care for patients throughout your organization. All the best!