Medical Care Research and Review published a Special Supplemental Issue: The Art and Science of Nursing Quality Measurement in April 2007.

The special issue contains a series of articles, commissioned by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) (see Program Results on ID# 049530), which explore next steps required to implement national voluntary quality standards for nursing-sensitive care.

The National Quality Forum (NQF) endorsed a set of 15 standards (see Program Results on ID# 047479). This starter set was intended for the public and other health care stakeholders to use to evaluate the extent and ways nurses in acute care hospitals contribute to patient safety, health care quality and a professional work environment. NQF also produced a set of research priorities for a meeting at RWJF.

Sage Publications created the special supplemental issue with support from RWJF (ID# 051115).

Key Results

• Eight articles appeared in a supplement to Medical Care Research and Review 64, no. 2 (April 2007). (Abstracts are available online.) The articles were:
  • "Introduction: Improving Health Care in America Through Nursing Quality Measurement Research," Lori Melichar.
  • "Performance Measurement of Nursing Care: State of the Science and the Current Consensus," Jack Needleman, Ellen T. Kurtzman and Kenneth W. Kizer.
  • "Nursing Sensitive Databases: Their Existence, Challenges, and Importance," G. Rumay Alexander.
  • "Specifying and Standardizing Performance Measures for Use at a National Level: Implications for Nursing-Sensitive Care Performance Measures," Annette I. Riehle, Linda S. Hanold, Sharon L. Sprenger and Jerod M. Loeb.
  • "Nursing Measures: Implementation Considerations: Lessons Learned From the Field," Keith Kosel, Lillee Gelinas and Connie Paxson.
  • "The Nursing Practice Environment: Measurement and Evidence," Eileen T. Lake.
  • "The Impact of Nursing Interventions: Overview of Effective Interventions, Outcomes, Measures, and Priorities for Future Research," Linda Burnes Bolton, Nancy E. Donaldson, Dana N. Rutledge, Crystal Bennett and Diane S. Brown.
  • "Advancing the Science in the Measurement of Health Care Quality Influenced by Nurses," Mary D. Naylor.

Funding

RWJF supported the project with a grant of $30,000 from March 2006 to April 2007.

After the Program

RWJF created its Interdisciplinary Nursing Quality Research Initiative, in part, to address the priorities detailed in the special supplement.