Tracking NQF-Endorsed™ Consensus Standards for Nursing-Sensitive Care

Background

Nurses, as the single largest healthcare profession, provide more direct care than any other caregivers in this nation. Yet, until recently, no single method was available for quantifying the influence of nursing personnel and their care-related behaviors on the quality of healthcare and patient safety. In 2004, NQF endorsed a set of 15 nursing-sensitive consensus standards.1,2 The use and reporting of these consensus standards will enhance the available evidence and understanding of the relationship between nursing-related system characteristics and patient care processes and outcomes. Implementation of the NQF-endorsed™ standards, however, poses unique challenges and opportunities. The consensus standards do not address a single, common population nor are they derived from a single measure developer or source. Early adopters are not formally supported or assisted in the endeavor, which may lead to inconsistent adoption and frustration. To address these concerns, NQF will undertake this 12-month project to understand the current landscape of and trends in adoption, accelerating the uniform implementation of them into practice. Findings also will be communicated to the research and measure development community so they may be factored into future investigation, measure improvement, and technical assistance.

Scope

The project will:

  • Establish a tracking system for capturing and reporting adoption and use of NQF-endorsed national voluntary consensus standards for nursing-sensitive care.
  • Identify the successes and challenges experienced by users of the standards, including factors that influence the voluntary collection and reporting of them.
  • Identify technical and specification-related issues that are barriers to uniform implementation and communicate these to the relevant measure developers.

Funding

This project is supported by a grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

For more information, contact Ellen Kurtzman, RN, MPH at 202.783.1300, or by email at info@qualityforum.org.

1 National Quality Forum. National Voluntary Consensus Standards for Nursing-Sensitive Care: An Initial Performance Measure Set. Washington, DC. 2004.
2 Project was funded by a grant provided by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) with additional funding from the Department of Veterans Affairs.