University Nursing Project: Acute Aged Care Project Management

This project management assignment focuses on acute aged care within public hospitals, addressing challenges such as falls, drug side effects, and patient well-being. The student defines a project, discusses the project's problem – the increasing demands on healthcare providers due to the aging population and the high risks faced by elderly patients in acute care wards – and proposes a person-centered approach as a solution. This approach emphasizes understanding and meeting individual patient needs to deliver high-quality care. The assignment also poses two critical project management questions: how public hospitals implement patient-centered models given high staff workloads and the cost-effectiveness of these models. The project considers factors such as scope, scheduling, procurement, cost, risk management, communications, stakeholders, resources, and quality to develop comprehensive solutions for improved patient outcomes.

Running head: PROJECT MANAGEMENT IN NURSING
ACUTE AGED CARE
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

1ACUTE AGED CARE
Answer 1:
A project can be defined as a provisional attempt undertaken to develop anexclusive
service, product as well as results (Xia et al. 2016). Therefore, it can be managed with the
help of processes, skills, methods, experience as well as relevant knowledge to reach or
accomplished the goal of the project.
Project Topic: Public Hospital in Acute Aged Care with both medical as well as surgical
patients
According to aihw.gov.au (2020), the aging population in Australia was 3.8 million in
the year 2017, which results in 15 percent of the total population in the nation. Besides, it is
estimated that the aging population will grow up to 22 percent of the population in the year
2057. For the continual growth of the aging population, the healthcare providers in Australia
have efficient numbers of public hospitals that provide either free or lower-cost service.
However, this increasing rate of the population can often lead to an increase in the demands
that may consider a major challenge for the healthcare provider.
Generally, the acute hospital is filled with the majority of the aged population as well
as their length of stay is more in comparison with the other youth population (Vetrano et al.
2014). In the aged care ward, there should be continual monitoring or supervision towards the
patients either medical or any surgical patient. Acute aged care responds to acute emergencies
or any trauma that the patients have encountered.
The major problem that occurred in the aged care ward within public hospitals is a
high rate of significant risks. Sudden falls, drug side effects, delirium or any general issues
such as loss of independence. The environment of the hospital has also affected the negativity
to the elder patient as they have to adjust in a new period, new routine and other factors such
as the height of the bed (Horter et al. 2014). Many patients in the acute aged ward face

2ACUTE AGED CARE
challenges and there are multiple cases of sudden falls or incapability to attain the patients.
Old aged people are the vulnerable group and therefore, there should be effective care
towards them.
The major effective solution for the effective care of the patient in an acute care ward
is a person-centred approach. The fundamental of this approach is by understanding the needs
of every aged patient as well as fulfilling their needs for delivering quality care towards them.
it can be done by collecting their choices, previous history, preferences and any necessary
information require to develop the system of care. The system of care will help healthcare
professionals in easy communication, reliable assessment and promote the delivery of
treatment in a team. It will also build a strong relationship that will offer calm as well as the
most favourable stimulation.
Answer 2:
How do the public hospitals deal with the formulation of patient-centred models where there
is a high workload of staff in the acute aged ward?
What will be the effective cost of implementing the patient-centred model?
The patient-centred model will impact on effective outcomes in delivering high quality care
towards the aged patients, how to measure the performance of the model and what are the
parameters included in the model?

3ACUTE AGED CARE
References
aihw.gov.au 2020. Older Australia at a glance, Australia’s changing age & gender profile -
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare. [online] Australian Institute of Health and
Welfare. Available at: https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/older-people/older-australia-at-a-
glance/contents/demographics-of-older-australians/australia-s-changing-age-and-gender-
profile [Accessed 19 Feb. 2020].
Horter, S., Stringer, B., Reynolds, L., Shoaib, M., Kasozi, S., Casas, E.C., Verputten, M. and
du Cros, P., 2014. “Home is where the patient is”: a qualitative analysis of a patient-centred
model of care for multi-drug resistant tuberculosis. BMC Health Services Research, 14(1),
p.81.
Vetrano, D.L., Landi, F., De Buyser, S.L., Carfì, A., Zuccalà, G., Petrovic, M., Volpato, S.,
Cherubini, A., Corsonello, A., Bernabei, R. and Onder, G., 2014. Predictors of length of
hospital stay among older adults admitted to acute care wards: a multicentre observational
study. European journal of internal medicine, 25(1), pp.56-62.
Xia, B., Xiong, B., Skitmore, M., Wu, P. and Hu, F., 2016. Investigating the impact of project
definition clarity on project performance: Structural equation modeling study. Journal of
Management in Engineering, 32(1), p.04015022.