The recent introduction of the Quadruple Aim approach emphasizes the healthcare system and healthcare workers’ importance. The goal of the course includes improving job level satisfaction among healthcare employees. While implementing evidence-based practice (EBP) is considered a standard, the actual execution of EBP implementation has been inconsistent. This essay will analyze the connection between Evidence-Based Practice and the Quadruple Aim and determine whether the relationship between the two matters is direct or indirect.
The goal of the Evidence-Based Practice and the Quadruple Aim is to acknowledge the effort the healthcare system puts into the other three aspects of the approach: population health, enhancing patient experience, and lowering healthcare services costs. Quadruple Aim in healthcare assesses workers’ dissatisfaction with their jobs due to incivility, work overload, neglect, and disrespect (Arnetz et al., 2020). Although the EBP might not touch on the subjects directly, there are some connecting points between the two issues. The connection mainly appears because of the Quadruple Aim approach’s fourth point – the healthcare system is closely related to all the parts of the Triple Aim approach.
Addressing the first point of the Quadruple Aim healthcare, patient experience, one could say that EBP plays a significant part in the subjects. Although EBP’s goal is to improve the quality of healthcare services and patient outcomes, according to Hashish & Alsayed (2020), there is no correlation between the implementation of EBP and patient outcomes. However, McKinney et al. (2019) state that the performance of EBP and Quadruple aim sometimes increases nurses’ confidence in performing a literature search and the ability to analyze and evaluate evidence. Although the skills acquired after EBP implementation do not directly impact the patients’ experience, improving nurses’ ability to translate theoretical skills to practice indicates professional development, leading to a higher quality of healthcare services.
Considering the second and most crucial point of the Quadruple aim approach, population health, EBP positively impacts the quality of healthcare services by preventing excessive workforce turnover. If a widespread implementation of EBP could resolve at least a small portion of the turnover issue, it could help with the current incivility situation. As the efficiency of the healthcare system heavily relies on workforce productivity, improved communication and relationships in working groups would prevent workplace incivility. As more employees consider staying in the workplace over leaving the career path, more people would come for the services.
Previous arguments also relate to healthcare services costs. When the problem of turnover is resolved, the cost of healthcare services will decrease (Hashish & Alsayed, 2020). Although there is no evidence for a correlation between job satisfaction and the use of EBP, there is a connection between job satisfaction and the confidence the employees gain from EBP implementation.
Therefore, using EBP through the Triple-aim approach could be described as indirect. Still, the Quadruple aim approach is directly connected to the healthcare system part that heavily influences other subjects. Although the EBP’s goals target the patients’ safety and improvement of the healthcare system, comprehensive implementation of the approach could impact the problem of workforce turnover. The overall healthcare system and population health would benefit when the turnover issue is solved or improved through EBP.
References
Arnetz, B. B., Goetz, C., Arnetz, J. E., Sudan, S., vanSchagen, J., Piersma, K., & Reyelts, F. (2020). Enhancing healthcare efficiency to achieve the Quadruple Aim: An exploratory study. BMC Research Notes, 13(1).
Hashish, E. a. A., & Alsayed, S. (2020). Evidence-based practice and its relationship to quality improvement: A cross-sectional study among ‎Egyptian nurses. The Open Nursing Journal, 14(1), 254–262.
McKinney, I., DelloStritto, R. A., & Branham, S. (2019). Nurses’ use of evidence-based practice at point of care. Critical Care Nursing Quarterly, 42(3), 256–264.