Course
NURS-4220K Leadership Competencies-Summer
Discussion Question
Examine the strategies and interventions implemented on your unit and consider:
a) Were the strategies effective in creating a sustainable change on your nursing unit?
b) To what extent can your nurse manager and CNO expect your unit to exceed the national benchmark in the next quarter or next year?
Does the run chart have predictive ability?
Does the run chart support celebrating success?
How confident can leadership be that the trend will continue?
By Day 3, explain:
What was done successfully
Where improvement was needed in the quality improvement (QI) process
Identify the QI tools used and how they contributed to the outcome
What to Focus On in Your Response
1. Effectiveness of the Strategies
Discuss:
Whether the interventions led to measurable improvement
If change was temporary or sustained
Staff engagement and compliance
Whether processes were standardized
Sustainability depends on:
Ongoing monitoring
Leadership support
Staff accountability
Integration into workflow
2. Predictive Ability of the Run Chart
A run chart:
Displays data over time
Shows trends, shifts, or variation
Helps determine if change is random or meaningful
Consider:
Was there a sustained upward or downward trend?
Were there enough data points to suggest true improvement?
Was variation reduced?
A run chart alone does not guarantee future success but can suggest early momentum if patterns are stable.
3. Celebrating vs. Premature Confidence
Leadership can celebrate:
If benchmarks are consistently met
If improvements are sustained over multiple data cycles
If variation is reduced
Caution is needed if:
Data period is short
Improvements are inconsistent
No control measures are in place
4. Quality Improvement Tools to Identify
Common tools that may have been used:
Run charts
PDSA (Plan-Do-Study-Act) cycles
Root cause analysis
Fishbone diagram
Benchmark comparison
Audit and feedback
Staff education interventions
Explain how each tool:
Guided problem identification
Measured change
Supported decision-making
Sample Solution
In this scenario, the national benchmark for medical surgical units like this is 85% very satisfied, and mine has scored in the low 70s on the HCAPHS survey. The unit successfully had improvement in many months in their pain management satisfaction scores. However, there were multiple months that there were no documented assessments.…..Click below to access the full sample solution (PDF)