Nursing

Inside the program: Quality indicators

HCPro's Weekly Update on the ANCC Magnet Recognition Program®*, July 30, 2010

You may think of quality indicators as those which require interdisciplinary or organizationwide collaboration, and those which are nursing-sensitive, or primarily in the scope of nursing control.

Those indicators requiring interdisciplinary collaboration are complex processes and are usually coordinated by an organizational QI department with the ability to involve multiple disciplines. These are organizational indicators. Though nurses participate in many of these organizational QI projects, they are not in the sole domain of nurses to control.

However, within the scope of nursing practice are nursing sensitive indicators (NSI). These are metrics that improve if there is a greater quantity or quality of nursing care, according to the American Nurses Association (ANA). In the last few years an increasing body of knowledge in defining NSIs and their contribution to patient outcomes has been developed for the professional of nursing. This has resulted from a number of factors. Research has indicated that patient outcomes improve, complications and mortality are reduced, costs can be reduced, and patient and professional nurse satisfaction can be enhanced with strong performance on nursing-sensitive indicators.

Source: Quality Improvement for Nurse Managers

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