PDSA Cycle and Example of Its Implications in Oncology Nursing
The PDCA cycle is an abbreviation of the “Plan-Do-Check-Act,” also known as the “Deming cycle.” The PDCA cycle is a sequence of actions aimed at improvement. The stages of oncology nursing care can be based on the use of the PDCA cycle. The first stage is the planning of activities for the treatment of the patient. It begins with an analysis of the current state of health, during which data is collected, which is used to develop a plan for improving treatment. For example, it determines which methods of treatment should be combined (radiation therapy, chemo -, hormone-and immunotherapy). The second stage is the performance of medical work and making a slight adjustment to treatment (for instance, treatment methods are excluded or added depending on the side effects). The third stage is taking tests and monitoring the result obtained during the process, identifying deviations from the expected results of treatment, and determining the causes of variations (i.e., the growth of the tumor and the decrease in its volume are evaluated). The fourth stage is taking measures to eliminate the causes of deviations from the planned development (e.g., therapy is carried out to eliminate the severe symptoms of a common malignant process).
The Steps of Risk Assessment and It’s Importance in Nursing Management
Risk assessment is used to reduce the number of adverse consequences of work. This applies to the risks associated with the provision of medical care and financial, organizational, legal risks. It is necessary to start risk assessment by analyzing information about the factors that can affect a nurse’s work. This can be done by calculating the medical organization’s weaknesses that can cause adverse consequences and external threats. Then, it is necessary to adapt the list of hazards to the specifics of the nurse’s duties. Next, it is needed to choose a method for assessing the professional risks of a nurse. The following step is to determine the employee’s performance from the point of view of safety to the professional risk assessment and adjust its results to the human factor’s value. Risk assessment allows to identify and assess the consequences of all existing risks and developing counteraction tactics aimed at limiting accidental events that can cause physical and moral harm to patients and medical personnel. When considering the risk assessment results, the management of nursing manipulations can significantly improve medical care quality.
Ensuring the Staff Compliance with Patient Quality and Safety Instruction
Ensuring medical activities’ quality and safety depends on the degree of participation of all personnel from the nurse to the chief physician on work. Ensuring the staff compliance with patient quality and safety instruction requires managers’ high qualification and executive discipline and encourages staff to participate in the management decision-making process. The team of nurses should know and effectively apply in practice the entire arsenal of measures necessary in each specific case to remove the patient from a life-threatening condition. It is essential to organize medical personnel’s interaction with each other so that it is effective and safe, especially in the states of high-tech operations and manipulations with several people’s participation.
If a medication error took place in my oncology unit, the critical question to ask primarily when I approached the situation would be: Where did this happen? According to the root cause analysis, Step 1 is the Problem definition, and this is the question that is suitable for that step.
Safety culture indicates preventing harm.