Quality Improvement: Assessing Your Clinical Microsystem

There is a call to action for nurses in all types of practice settings to lead change efforts that impact quality of care. An intervention may focus on an outcome or improvement of an existing process. In both instances, an understanding of organizational culture and readiness for change are needed. Evidence-based tools are available for use by nurses and interprofessional teams to assess the clinical work environment and plan for measurement of change. Learning the use of these tools is a key step in advancing quality improvement. Use of quality improvement techniques can have an immediate impact at the clinical microsystem level.