QUALITY INDICATORS
Extensively describe nurse sensitive indicators your employer is tracking
All health facilities take prime on the welfare of their patients and the quality of the services they provide. As such, hospitals hire only highly-qualified nurses and staff to ensure that no patient would fall prey to malpractice and unethical treatment. The Nursing-Sensitive Indicators developed by the American Nurses Association (ANA) gauges the efficiency of nurses in the facility. Idzior (2014) explains that these indicators provide information and understanding on the range of the services and care the facility delivers.
Hospital administrators measure Nursing-Sensitive Indicators such as: the patient-focused outcomes, process of care, and the structure of care. The patient-focused outcomes measures the conditions of patients and their improvement rates. Process of care looks into the how the nurses execute and complete their day-to-day tasks as well as how satisfied they are in terms of workload and workplace environment. Structure of care pertains to the qualification of the nurses: education, professional experience, competency skills and their career development.
Like any other employers, the indicators provided by the ANA guides the employers on the management of nurses in monitoring the quality of service delivered by the nurses. Bridges, Makic and Rauen (2009) claim that the nursing practice must connect to its tradition as well as to evidence-based research. Through the Nursing-Sensitive Indicators, the culture of inquiry can be created and any actions can be supported by or refuted by the results based on the use of the indicator. It also improves patient care and clinical outcomes.
Discuss what these specific indicators tell us about bedside nursing practice
In bedside practice, all the indicators apply. The collection of data based on the indicators describes the relationship between the nursing practice and the patient’s conditions. In a report entitled: Implementing Nursing's Report Card: A Study of RN Staffing Length of Stay and Patient Outcomes, the study found that the greater the number of registered nurses (RN) per acuity-adjusted day, the lesser the days the patient would stay in the hospital. Also, the report found that the incidence of patient mortality in pneumonia, pressure ulcers, urinary tract infections and post-operational infections are lower with the presence of more RNs.
Blegen, et al. (1998) also found that found that the high proportion of RNs lessens the incidences of negative patient outcomes and complaints by up to 87.5%. The research team concluded that the high RN skills mix lowers the number of adverse incidence of diseases and patient falls on nursing care units. These researches urge that nursing facilities alongside bedside practice must be improved to uphold the highest ethical standards and integrity in the nursing profession.
Comprehensively explain how nurses should be accountable for their patients' health outcomes
Gallagher and Rowell (2003) suggest that the provision of outcome-oriented and cost-effective health care must become a mandate: an obligation to ensure that the healthcare staff including nurses must abide to highest ethical standards. To fulfill this mandate, nurses must bear accountability to the health outcomes of their patients.
The ANA Code of Ethics emphasizes the nurses’ commitment to their individual, family, group or community patients. They work towards the promotion, advocacy and advancement of the health, safety and rights of their patients. They take responsibility and accountability for the nursing practice and delegate tasks commensurate to their obligations to provide the best care for their patients (ANA, 2001).
Conversely, nurses can ensure the patient-outcomes would be positive if they practice professional accountability and integrity in their profession. In the research of Blegen et.al (1998) the higher the number of professional nurses in hospitals lowers the cases of negative patient outcomes. This attests if more qualified nurses would be placed in healthcare facilities, high moral and ethical standards would be practiced. As professionals, they would be guided by the Code of Ethics and contribute towards the development of the nursing as an art and science.
References
American Nurses Association (2001). American Nurses Association, Code of Ethics for Nurses with Interpretive Statements. Washington, D.C.: American Nurses Publishing retrieved from: http://nursingworld.org/MainMenuCategories/EthicsStandards/CodeofEthicsforNurses
Blegen, Mary A. and Vaughn, Tom. (1998). A Multisite Study of Nurse Staffing and Patient Occurrences. Nursing Economics
Blegen, Mary A., Goode, Colleen J., and Reed, Laura. (1998). Nurse Staffing and Patient
Outcomes. Nursing Research: January-February. 47(1)
Gallagher, R., & Rowell, P. (2003). Claiming the Future of Nursing Through Nursing‐sensitive Quality Indicators: Nursing Administration Quarterly. Retrieved from http://journals.lww.com/naqjournal/Abstract/2003/10000/Claiming_the_Future_of_Nursing_Through.4.aspx
Idzior, C. (2014). Nursing-sensitive indicators: What they can tell you about your healthcare facility - Health Providers Choice. Retrieved from http://www.hpcnursing.com/nursing-sensitive-indicators-benefits/
Rauen, C., Makic, M., & Bridges, E. (2009). Evidence-Based Practice Habits: Transforming Research Into Bedside Practice. Retrieved from http://ccn.aacnjournals.org/content/29/2/46.short
