Public and Rural Health Specialist
DNP Essential II:
Organizational and Systems Leadership for Quality Improvement and Systems Thinking
1. Develop and evaluate care delivery approaches that meet current and future needs of patient populations based on scientific findings in nursing and other clinical sciences, as well as organizational, political, and economic sciences.
2. Ensure accountability for quality of health care and patient safety for populations with whom they work.
• Use advanced communication skills/processes to lead quality improvement and patient safety initiatives in health care systems.
• Employ principles of business, finance, economics, and health policy to develop and implement effective plans for practice-level and/or system-wide practice initiatives that will improve the quality of care delivery.
• Develop and/or monitor budgets for practice initiatives.
• Analyze the cost-effectiveness of practice initiatives accounting for risk and improvement of health care outcomes.
• Demonstrate sensitivity to diverse organizational cultures and populations, including patients and providers.
3. Develop and/or evaluate effective strategies for managing the ethical dilemmas inherent in patient care, the health care organization, and research.
(AACN, 2006)
Exemplar 1: State of Alaska, Section of Public Health Nursing Strategic Plan 2025-2028
A strategic plan results from a deliberate assessment and decision-making process that defines the current state of an organization and plan for its future. This plan establishes the direction for the Alaska Public Health Nursing workforce by providing a common understanding of the vision, mission, guiding principles, goals, and objectives. The plan communicates these essential organizational components to all employees and shareholders that will help move the organization forward.
Exemplar 2: A Program and Evaluation to reduce substance-related mortality rates for Alaska Natives
In 2022, the overdose death rate for AI/AN people was 78.2 deaths per 100,000, and American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) and Multiple race people typically
experience higher overdose death rates than other groups in Alaska data (Alaska Department of
Health, 2023). This paper outlines a conceptual intervention and provides a statement of need, how structural racism relates to these specific health inequities, goals and objectives, and a clear evaluation framework and plan that includes a timeline and logic model.
Exemplar 3: Lowering Barriers and Increasing Access to Healthy Foods in Angoon, Alaska
Angoon is a remote, Alaska Native village located on the western side of Admiralty Island in Southeast Alaska. Angoon’s geographic isolation, inclement weather patterns, and reliance on barge and seaplanes to provide food shipping make it an ideal community for a school-based hydroponic greenhouse program that offers greens and other vegetables as part of the school lunch program. This paper explores a quality improvement process for Angoon public schools and ways to measure outcomes from this community project proposal.
References
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Alaska Department of Health, Division of Public Health, Health Analytics and Vital Records Section. (2023, September). 2022 drug overdose mortality update. 2022 Drug Overdose Mortality Update (September 2023). https://health.alaska.gov/dph/VitalStats/Documents/PDFs/DrugOverdoseMortalityUpdate _2022.pdf
American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (AACN). (2006). The essentials of doctoral education for advanced nursing practice [PDF]. https://www.aacnnursing.org/Portals/42/Publications/DNPEssentials.pdf
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