Root Cause Analysis Draft

Assignment Prompt

Root cause analysis (RCA) is a structured method used to analyze serious adverse events. Initially developed to analyze industrial accidents, RCA is now widely deployed as an error analysis tool in healthcare. A central tenet of RCA is to identify underlying problems that increase the likelihood of errors while avoiding the trap of focusing on mistakes by individuals. RCA thus uses the systems approach to identify both active errors (errors occurring at the point of interface between humans and a complex system) and latent errors (the hidden problems within healthcare systems that contribute to adverse events).

Directions:

1. Objective: Student will identify a current problem or issue occurring on a nursing unit or within a healthcare organization.       TOPIC: Medication Errors or writers’ choice
2. Student will interview two stakeholders (Director of Nursing & Charge Nurse/Unit Manager) to determine the root causes of the problem.
3. Student will spend time during this paper exploring the causes and then the ultimate “root cause” of the presented issue

The student will:

• The student will write a two-to-three-page paper describing the issue and the results of the interviews. Paper will be in APA 7th ed. Format and include a title page and reference page for the rough draft
• The student will provide a complete Root Cause Analysis graph in the appendix of the paper. Learn more athttps://www.patientsafety.va.gov/professionals/onthejob/rca.asp

Potential Resources:

• Root Cause Analysis for Healthcare
• Root Cause Analysis Sample Video – Root Cause Analysis Video Sample – Medication Errors
• Root Cause Analysis Samples and Templates

Expectations

Title Page: 1

Length: 3 pages

Reference Page: 1

Number of references: 3 references (5 years or less)

Format: APA 6th Edition