The hospital has well-established evidence-based procedures in place to prevent post-op surgical infections. A nurse who works on a surgical unit has noticed an increase in the number of post-op surgical infections in patients. The unit has recently been short staffed leading to the use of float pool nurses and a large amount of new hires. The nurse begins to wonder how well the procedures are being followed.

1.

What CUES (Assessment) should the nurse consider?

2.

What HYPOTHESIS (Diagnosis) should the nurse consider?

3.

What ACTION (Plan and Implement) will be most effective for the nurse to take to improve the rate of surgical site infections?

4.

What OUTCOME (Evaluation) metric will determine successful QI?