An organization’s culture can have a big impact on its ability to successfully implement quality improvement initiatives. By examining situations where quality improvements were prevented from being implemented, we can learn the elements of a culture that can quickly make improvements impossible even when those improvements will lead to the saving of many, many lives.
Read about these three examples of problematic organizational cultures: this article about Florence Nightingale; this discussion about Ignaz Semmelweis; and this article about a culture of blame and denial. Then, consider what elements of those organizational cultures were problematic. In the examples of Nightingale and Semmelweis, you will also see how these people applied logical analyses (analogous to the problem-solving frameworks discussed in this module) of metrics and data they collected.
In your initial post, address the following:
• Introduce yourself to the class by discussing your background in the nursing and healthcare administration industry.
• Discuss your initial reaction to the examples of resistance to improvement initiatives.
• Describe a few reasons for hesitancy toward the different quality improvement initiatives.
◦ Do you think those reasons apply to today’s healthcare industry?
