Why Is Safe Quality Care Important

Essay Question 5 Define and describe the importance of “safe and quality care” by using/incorporating one of the models described in the Amer book.
Safe care is the first and foremost step in providing quality health care. However, safety alone does not ensure high quality nursing care. Risks and threats to safe quality care are abundant in the hospital setting. From overworked and under staffed nurses to ineffective communication, error causing factors makes safe quality care hard to come by and patient care is often compromised. In this essay I will be discussing safe quality care and Transforming care at the bedside (TCAB) project. TCAB is a model of change that supports nurse-driven solutions designed to develop quality nursing care that includes efficient use of time, evidence-based practice, and multiple strategies to improve processes in health care. TCAB empowers nurses to address threats to quality and safe care by using rapid cycle change to improve care.
Safe Quality Care
Safe quality health care is assumed to be the goal of all health care providers including nurses. Safety is the minimum standard required for care and is clearly defined as little or no risk for harm. Quality on the other hand is much more loosely defined. According to Amer “Quality and Safety for Transformational Nursing”, quality of care is defined as a measure of the ability of a provider for individuals and populations that increase the likelihood of desired health outcomes and are consistent with current professional knowledge.
Patient care can be improved when frontline nurses identify problems and implement incremental system solutions focused on safety. Nurses need the knowledge and tools to begin to affect change in their environments. Such changes can increase the efficiency of nursing care, help nurses spend more time with patients, and create safer environments. Implementations of care models such as TCAB can have a dramatic impact on safety and quality