Nursing

Be sure indicators reflect actual nursing care

HCPro's Weekly Update on the ANCC Magnet Recognition Program®*, August 1, 2006

The ANCC Magnet Recognition Program® requires organizations to collect nurse-sensitive quality indicators so that these may be trended over time, benchmarked with other organizations, and analyzed for their effect on patient outcomes. Examples of nurse-sensitive quality indicators include falls occurrence, and pressure ulcer prevalence and occurrence. Human resource indicators can also be used to gauge nurses' effect on patient outcomes, such as nursing-care hours per patient day and patient and nurse satisfaction.

When analyzing the data that has been collected to represent the organization's nurse-sensitive quality indicators, staff nurses should discuss with their managers/supervisors and colleagues whether the indicators truly reflect staffing on a particular unit or whether different indicators are more appropriate. A simple way of thinking about indicators is to ask, "What adverse patient outcomes would we see on this unit if we did not have adequate staff?"

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