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Weekly Q&A: Tips on nurse-sensitive quality indicators

HCPro's Weekly Update on the ANCC Magnet Recognition Program®*, September 12, 2006

This week, a reader seeks tips for collecting nurse-sensitive quality indicators when pursuing designation from the ANCC. Read the response below from our advisor, Katherine Riley, MSN, RN, CNA,BC, ANCC Magnet Recognition Program® coordinator and assistant vice president of operations at Southwestern Vermont Medical Center in Bennington.

Q: What tips do you have for acute-care designation applicants when collecting nurse-sensitive quality indicators?

A: When it comes to nurse-sensitive quality indicators, the area that seems to cause the most confusion is how to select indicators that are meaningful to individual nursing units, and what to do if not all of the required and recommended indicators in the ANCC's 2005 Magnet Recognition Program® Application Manual are appropriate for specific nursing units.

Organizations should collect data on as many of the required indicators as possible, and utilize the preferred list of optional indicators whenever possible. On units in which one or more of these indicators are not applicable, the unit should try to find additional indicators to track and trend. These indicators might come from professional organizations such as the Oncology Nursing Society, from the Healthy People 2010 goals, from regional consortiums, or even from within the organization itself.

The important thing to remember about nurse-sensitive quality indicators is that each indicator must be tracked and trended over time, and its relationship to staffing must be analyzed.

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