RIS ID
83670
Abstract
The measurement of nursing care is not a simple task. Largely because of the complexity of measuring nursing practice, there has been no collective agreement in Australia, or internationally, on a set of nursesensitive indicators that measures both the quality and safety of nursing practice. This presentation will describe a mixed methods research project that has addressed this gap. A conceptual framework for measuring the quality and safety outcomes of nursing practice has been developed. A modified Delphi survey was utilised to gather data and rank concepts based on their importance to a wide cross-section of direct care nursing staff from public and private healthcare organisations within Australia. The views of the recipients of nursing care where also saught as part of the conceptual framework development. Utilising the conceptual framework as a template, the empirical literature on nursing-sensitive outcomes was then interogated to identify suitable indicators and measurement methods. Following analysis of data, existing indicators were assessed using the FAME scale of healthcare effectiveness for Feasability, Appropriateness, Meaningfulness & Effectiveness (Pearson et al. 2005). Following this analysis a comprehensive indicator set for measuring the quality and safety outcomes of nursing care has been proposed. This indicator set complements the conceptual framework already described. The outcomes of this research project are: a conceptual framework that can be used to guide evaluation of the quality & safety outcomes of nursing care within any nursing environment; and an indicator set that will enable quality AND safety outcomes of nursing care to be measured.
Publication Details
J. Sim, P. Crookes & K. Walsh (2013). Developing a set of nurse-sensitive patient indicators. presented at the International Congess of Nursing Conference 2013, Melbourne Convention Centre, 19 May 2013.