University Nursing Leadership and Management Report - Semester 1

This report delves into the core concepts of nurse leadership and management, exploring the critical role of reengineering in healthcare settings. It examines how reengineering can improve production, quality, competitiveness, and reduce costs while enhancing patient care and satisfaction. The report also emphasizes the importance of continuous quality improvement (CQI) in healthcare, particularly in addressing issues like catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs). It describes a CQI initiative involving a policy requiring two nurses to manage catheter insertions, aiming to reduce CAUTI rates through enhanced procedures and monitoring. The report highlights the importance of nurse leaders partnering with stakeholders for effective reengineering implementations and emphasizes the need for evaluating and monitoring these processes for continuous improvement. References are provided to support the concepts discussed.

Running head: Nurse Leadership and Management 1
Nurse Leadership and Management
Name
Institution of Affiliation

Nurse Leadership and Management 2
Question 1
Reengineering is “is the art of redesigning process and the systems, structures, guidelines
or policies that support them” (Khodambashi, 2013). Reengineering aims at increasing
production, improving quality, enhancing competitiveness and reducing cost. Other aims include
improving patient care or satisfaction at the same time increasing profit margins. As a result of
new developments in the healthcare sector, the continuity of healthcare institutions relies on it.
Reengineering is characterized by getting rid of out of date systems and beliefs. It entails
introducing the current technology and coming up with new guidelines and policies for
organizing tasks. Therefore a nurse leader should determine gaps that have led to the need for
reengineering and evaluate if there are resources, competence and time to carry out the change
effectively, (Hoffman & Emanuel, 2013).
Perhaps for an effective reengineering process, it will require a specific leadership
approach that involves participative management which has accepted the change. Besides which
is ready to deliver it to its staff, (Milani & Lavie, 2015). Nurse leaders and managers have a
mandate in giving directions to junior staff and developing a plan on how to implement these
changes. Additionally, it requires close employee relationships, supportive programs and needs
to listen to employees as some reengineering process could be exhaustive among the employees.
Nurse leadership and management should be able to partner with other relevant stakeholders or
departments concerned for an effective reengineering implementation process, (Kumar &
Rahman, 2014).
Question 2
Continuous quality improvement in healthcare is very necessary for identifying
challenges and coming up with solutions to solve these problems. The main goals of an effective

Nurse Leadership and Management 3
continuous quality improvement process are monitoring, studying and implementing the nursing
process regards to effective and efficient patient care. As stated by, (Ramanathan & Duane,
2014), about 35% of healthcare-related infections are a result of Cather-associated Urinary tract
infections. Cather-associated Urinary tract infections account for the higher cases of mortality,
the increased period of stay, morbidity and higher hospital bills. Cather-associated urinary tract
infections could be effectively controlled if nurses could pursue an enhanced code developed
through continuous quality improvement, (Ettorchi-Tardy et al., 2012).
In my current position, our continuous quality improvement group has initiated a policy
that requires all Cather insertions to be managed by two nurses. Two nurses are responsible for
reviewing a patient’s data for reasons that could show the need for the Cather. All alternative
options if incase are present and appropriate are first exploited before performing a foley
insertion. A doctor’s order is a prerequisite for all catheter requests and is revised daily to
determine necessity. Two nurses must be available and at the point of a foley insertion is taking
place. The idea is to ensure that during the insertion process, the insertion nurse gets assistance
for supplies if the need arises and accurate charting is maintained from the observing nurse,
(Solomons & Spross, 2010). These procedures are being re-evaluated, monitored and presented
for changes daily for continuous quality improvements. It has also been necessary to examine
near error actions or evaluation of possible safety threats to prevent them from occurring.

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References
Ettorchi-Tardy, A., Levif, M., & Michel, P. (2012). Benchmarking: A method for continuous
quality improvement in health. Healthcare Policy | Politiques de Santé, 7(4), E101-
E119.
Hoffman, A., & Emanuel, E. J. (2013). Reengineering US health care. JAMA, 309(7), 661.
Khodambashi, S. (2013). Business process re-engineering application in healthcare in a
relation to health information systems. Procedia Technology, 9, 949-957.
Kumar, A., & Rahman, S. (2014). RFID-enabled process reengineering of closed-loop
supply chains in the healthcare industry of Singapore. Journal of Cleaner Production,
85, 382-394.
Milani, R. V., & Lavie, C. J. (2015). Health care 2020: Reengineering health care delivery to
combat chronic disease. The American Journal of Medicine, 128(4), 337-343.
Ramanathan, R., & Duane, T. M. (2014). Urinary tract infections in surgical patients.
Surgical Clinics of North America, 94(6), 1351-1368.
SOLOMONS, N. M., & SPROSS, J. A. (2010). Evidence-based practice barriers and
facilitators from a continuous quality improvement perspective: An integrative
review. Journal of Nursing Management, 19(1), 109-120.