Nursing Sensitive Quality Indicators

Nursing Sensitive Quality Indicators

            Hello! My name is ……………. And welcome this healthcare organization. I am here to induct and guide your new position as a nurse on the roles and responsibilities of your new position. You all know that nurses are part of the healthcare team that is involved in the delivery of care. The nurses coordinate the patients' care by collaborating with other healthcare professionals to improve the patient's health outcomes (Connolly & Wright, 2017). Thus, due to the crucial role played by the nurses, it is essential to assess the safety and quality of healthcare services delivered to the patients by the nurses. I will highlight the significant nursing-sensitive quality indicators that help measure nurses' performance based on the safety and quality of nursing care services.

National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQI)

The NDNQI is a database established by the ANA (American Nurses Association) to assess the safety and quality of nursing care services in 1998 (Sage & Harris, 2020). It collects and analyzes the data from various healthcare facilities to determine the need to adopt various changes or strategies to improve the quality of nursing care services. Additionally, it enhances evidence-based practices (EBP) in healthcare facilities by training the nurses on the importance of EBP in making better health decisions to improve the patients' health outcomes.

Nursing Sensitive Quality Indicators

The nursing-sensitive quality indicators are grouped into; process, structure, and outcomes. The structure entails the nursing staff's skills, education level, and certifications that determine their ability to deliver high-quality nursing care services (Merkley et al., 2018). The process entails the nursing interventions, assessments, and the nurses' job satisfaction levels, which influence their performance levels. The outcome focuses on the patient's health outcomes and their level of satisfaction with the healthcare services offered by the nurses in a healthcare organization. There are various nursing quality indicators: pressure ulcers, patient falls, nursing staff turnover rates, and nosocomial infections (Sage & Harris, 2020).

Outcome indicator: Catheter-associated urinary tract infections (CAUTIs)

The CAUTIs are an outcome quality indicator that I selected for this tutorial. These infections are preventable and mainly occur in inpatient care settings where there are no infection control measures. According to the statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), approximately 560,000 patients acquire CAUTIs, and this number is likely to grow annually (Park et al., 2020). The effects of the infections are that they negatively affect the patient's health outcomes, increase the length of hospital stay, increase mortality rates, and negatively affect the patient's quality of life. According to ANA, nurses play an integral role in preventing infections, especially CAUTIs. This means that CAUTIs are preventable, and thus they are utilized to determine the quality of nursing care delivered in the organization.

Interview
            I interviewed the infection control nurse at the Matter Medical Center to assess the facility’s data collection, analysis, and dissemination process. She collects weekly reports on CAUTIs, which are documented by each unit in the healthcare facility. The information gathered is assessed for accuracy and analysis.
Collecting and Reporting Data

            Data collection and reports are essential for data analysis to determine the quality and safety of healthcare services provided by the healthcare organization. Thus, in this case, the infection control nurse gathers all the infections from all the units documented by the nurses daily. It contains the reason for catheterization, the vital signs, how long the patient stayed with the catheter, and the length of hospital stay after diagnosis of the infections. The infection control nurse then combines the data, reimbursed Medicaid and Medicare, and the NDNQI for analysis. Additionally, the infection control nurse interviews the affected patients and attends the morning nursing reports to gather more information. The nurses and other healthcare professionals must report any CAUTI incident in the electronic healthcare records for documentation.

Role of nurses in data collection

            The nurses are actively involved in the delivery of care services to the patients. They spend more time with the patients than any other healthcare professional. Thus, they monitor the progress of the patients after the patients receive various healthcare interventions. In this case, the nurses are involved in the documentation and collection of data involving CAUTIs. They collect daily data on the patient’s vital signs and laboratory tests that confirm the catheter-related diagnosis. The data is keyed in the electronic health records, which alert the infection control nurse. The nurses are obligated to report and document any case of infection regardless of any repercussions. The data must be accurate for reliable findings that help improve the quality and safety of nursing care services.

Evidence-Based Practice Guidelines

            The quality indicators provide a reference point for the impact of nursing care on the patient’s health outcomes. The data collected on these quality indicators is used to develop evidence-based strategies implemented in various healthcare organizations to improve the delivery of quality and safe healthcare services. The data is submitted to the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicator database, which then ranks the healthcare organizations in terms of the quality of nursing care services (Sage & Harris, 2020). This means that poor performance affects the performance of the organization. CAUTIs are brought about by a lack of proper infection control measures such as proper handwashing, waste disposal, and sterile technique when inserting or removing the catheter. These are among the proven evidenced-based practices that the nurses should utilize to prevent the occurrence of different catheter infections which affect the quality of nursing services.

Conclusion

            The nursing-sensitive quality indicators are an integral element in determining nursing care services' quality and safety. As you begin your nursing career, utilize the knowledge and skills learned in school to deliver quality and evidence-based nursing care services. Infection control is essential in reducing the risk of the spread of infections in the units. The occurrence of CAUTIs negatively affects the patient's health outcomes and increases the risk of readmissions, prolonged hospital admissions, or even death. You will be involved in data collection, which will assess the performance of nurses in various units. In case of any question, do not shy away from consulting other qualified nurses or healthcare professionals.

References

Connolly, D., & Wright, F. (2017). The nursing quality indicator framework tool. International
Journal of Healthcare Quality Assurance, 30(7), 603–616.

Merkley, J., Amaral, N., Sinno, M., Jivraj, T., Mundle, W., & Jeffs, L. (2018). Developing a Nursing Scorecard Using the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators®: A Canadian Hospital's Experience. Nursing Leadership (Toronto, Ont.), 31(4), 82-91.

Park, J. I., Bliss, D. Z., Chi, C. L., Delaney, C. W., & Westra, B. L. (2020). Knowledge discovery with machine learning for hospital-acquired catheter-associated urinary tract infections. Computers, informatics, nursing: CIN, 38(1), 28.

Sage, L., & Harris, J. (2018). Nursing quality indicator outcomes in hospitals with a Clinical
Nurse Leader: a scoping review protocol. JBI database of systematic reviews and
implementation reports, 16(4), 885-891.