Standardised nursing metrics needed
Research led by the National Nursing Research Unit (NNRU) at King’s College London has found that while improvements have been made in the measurement of nursing quality, further work and investment is needed across the board. The report, High Quality Care Metrics for Nursing, suggests a core minimum data set is required and recommends that having a robust, standardised approach to measuring care quality will help to ensure the NHS is transparent, accountable and focused on improvement.
Jane Ball, Deputy Director of the NNRU, said:
“Many NHS trusts are measuring a set of recognised indicators for nursing care quality, such as healthcare associated infection, pressure ulcers and falls. But we need to go beyond recording the incidence of problems to really capture the quality of care. Quality is about more than the absence of unacceptable events. More work is needed to identify a wider range of metrics and indicators that relate to effective and compassionate care, not just safety”.
Professor Jill Maben, Director of the National Nursing Research Unit, said:
“It is essential that organisations also consider the other factors that can have an impact on the quality of care. Workforce issues like nurse staffing levels, skill mix and the wider organisational climate also affect the quality of care delivered. We need measures that capture these aspects of care and national systems that can link them to patient experience and outcomes.”
The report, which was compiled on behalf of the Chief Nursing Officer’s Task and Finish Group for metrics, builds on the NNRU’s well-renowned 2008 report, State of the Art Metrics.
Professor Maben continued:
“It’s not just what we measure but how we measure quality that we need to think about. The lack of a standardised approach across the NHS means you cannot make meaningful comparisons between organisations. The gold standard in measuring the quality of nursing care is a set of clearly defined metrics, captured as near as possible to patient level with case mix adjustment, through standardised and routine mechanisms to minimise additional burden on clinical staff. Such ‘state-of-the-art’ approaches are crucial and have already been adopted in the United States and Canada.”
Jane Cummings, Chief Nursing Officer, said:
“At a time when we are focussing more than ever on the importance of delivering quality, compassionate care across the board, nurses and nursing leaders need to advance the way they use measurement to best effect.
“Measurement can help to minimise the risk of a patient getting pressure ulcers or suffering a fall, but it can also provide the wider public with information about the impact of nursing care, which is essential to ensure the NHS remains transparent and accountable. This report raises important issues for the next phase in their development and the architecture needed to sustain their use across the country.”
High Quality Care Metrics for Nursing is available on the National Nursing Research Unit website
For more information or interview opportunities contact:
Allie Johnstone
Communications Officer
Florence Nightingale School of Nursing & Midwifery, King’s College London
T: 020 7848 3062
E: allie.johnstone@kcl.ac.uk