NQF Begins Work on Nursing
Measures Project
June 20, 2003- The steering committee for the National
Quality Forum's Nursing Care Performance Measures project
met June 18 to establish a set of evidence-based, consensus
measures for evaluating the performance of nursing in acute
care hospitals. The steering committee will also consider
how to implement the measures and designate a subset of measures
that are appropriate for public reporting. The co-chairs of
the steering committee are Lillee S. Gelinas, R.N., M.S.N.
and Mary D. Naylor, Ph.D., R.N.
The steering committee agreed the purpose of the project,
sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, was to endorse
measures aimed at improving patient safety and other healthcare
outcomes. They also agreed to identify priority areas for
research in measurement and identify measures that will improve
the clinical practice of nurses and nursing teams today and
in the future. After agreeing on some initial guiding principles,
the committee discussed the scope and priorities for the measure
review. The committee agreed that scope of the review should
be limited to measures that are:
- Fully open source;
- Fully developed;
- Patient centered, nursing centered, and system centered;
- Address nursing care across multiple settings,
- Reflect aspects of care that nursing has influenced but
doesn't necessarily control; and
- Reflect a mix of personnel who deliver nursing services
in acute care settings.
The research priority areas the committee agreed upon include,
among others:
- Having some measures that apply to all nurses all patients,
and all hospitals;
- Including measures that are usable to consumers;
- Including measures that address care in multiple settings
and that focus on integrated and comprehensive care; and
- Including measures that overlap with similar existing
initiatives.
After agreeing to use the same measure evaluation criteria
used in the NQF Hospital Measures project, the committee had
a brief discussion about the current state of nursing performance
measures. The committee will meet again in August to examine
measures that fit their specified criteria.
Information:
Jeff Patyk, Staff Specialist
AAMC Health Care Affairs
jpatyk@aamc.org
(202) 828-0498
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