Research and quality improvement
Describe the difference between research and quality improvement. Provide a workplace example where qualitative and quantitative research is applied and how it was used within your organization. When replying to peers, discuss how these research findings might be incorporated into another health care setting.
Sample Solution
Research and quality improvement
Healthcare is increasingly focused on improving patient care outcomes while decreasing healthcare costs. As a result, greater efforts have been dedicated to implement evidence-based practice, which relies on clinical research findings to guide practice and quality improvement (QI) to assess whether or not changes made in practice have had an influence on patient care outcomes. Differentiating between a research study and a QI project can be difficult, as both often involve defining a problem, developing and implementing an intervention or change to address the problem. Quality improvement activities are designed to generate immediate improvement in patient care, whereas in research, there is no urgency to implement findings in practice, if ever. Research, however, is intended to test or replicate novel ideas beyond current knowledge and standard care.
