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Ask the expert: Delegating the role of coordinating nursing quality activities

HCPro's Weekly Update on the ANCC Magnet Recognition Program®*, August 7, 2007

This week, a reader asks if there should be a single person or department that coordinates nursing quality activities. Read the response below from our advisor Elise Gropper, PhD, APRN,BC, CPHQ, president of Gropper & Associates, Inc., Coral Springs, FL

Q: Should there be a person or a department devoted to coordinating nursing quality activities?

A: The resources assigned for nursing quality activities most often reflects the size and complexity of the organization and the existing structure of the organizationwide quality process. Allocation of resources for nursing quality activities can include any of the following:

• Nursing quality council with direct-care nurses gathering and reporting data
• Designated person assigned to aggregation and inputting of data to benchmarking sources such as National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQI)
• Nursing quality coordinator(s) either report directly to the nursing department or have a dual reporting role to nursing and the quality department

Smaller organizations have been known to assign the ANCC Magnet Recognition Program® coordinator the overall responsibility for coordinating nursing quality activities with unit-based councils, quality councils, or other structures. Regardless of how this process is implemented, important factors to remember when coordinating nursing quality activities is accuracy of data collection, involvement of direct-care staff, and the communication of findings back to the staff. Data needs to be analyzed on an organizationwide and unit basis to ensure that opportunities for improvement are identified and actions are taken to improve the quality and safety of patient care delivered.         

Editor's note: Do you have a question for one of our advisors? If you'd like us to consider your query for publication, please send it to Cameran Erny.

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