Informatics and Nursing-Sensitive Quality Indicators

Hello, my name is —. Today’s video presentation focuses on the most important topic regarding healthcare information technology which is informatics and nursing-sensitive quality indicators. informatics refers to the integration of different disciplines including health, sciences, information, technology, and computers within the same field. Nursing-sensitive indicators (NSI) define and evaluate nursing care practices regarding patient health and safety (Afaneh et al., 2021). These indicators determine the performance of nurses based on changes in the condition of the patient. The nursing performance evaluation systems are designed in which NDNSQI is of major consideration.

National Database of Nursing-Sensitive Quality Indicators

 NDNSQ refers to the National Database of Nursing-Sensitive Quality Indicators introduced by the American Nurses Association (ANA), NDNSQ ensures that the care provided to the patient by the direct and registered nurses must bring positive changes in the health of patients (Harolds & Miller, 2020). It prepares a report after surveying the nurses of all the hospitals annually and based on that database obtained from the report proper guidelines about how nurses can improve their performance and respond effectively and efficiently to the patient’s condition are provided. NDNSQ analyzes nursing strategies based on survey data and suggests evidence-based approaches to strengthen nursing strategies and practices. NDNSQ understands the role of nurses in providing health care to the patients and therefore works at the front end to ensure that the nurses are delivering high-quality care to the patients along with competent recognition and responding to the patient health situation, especially in deteriorating patient condition. It identifies the relationship between nursing performance and patient outcomes to better understand the role of nurses in changing patient conditions (Harolds & Miller, 2020).

Nursing-Sensitive Quality Indicators

Nursing-Sensitive Quality Indicators refer to the approach that is used to analyze, observe, and determine the performance of nursing care about the changing patient health conditions (Luo et al., 2022). Nurses are always at the front end while providing first aid and other treatments to the patients. Nurses stay by patients’ sides as long as the patient is admitted to the hospital just for the reason of providing needed treatment, monitoring, care, and safety to the patient (Oner et al., 2020). Due to the great influence of nurses on the health of patients, the quality of nursing performance needs to be determined, analyzed, and improved. Improved nursing quality will result in better and high-quality patient health and safety thus generating positive patient outcomes which is the basic and foremost priority of any healthcare organization. Nursing-sensitive indicators (NSI) are those indicators that help in evaluating the efficiency of nursing care. The evaluation of nursing care is necessary for better patient outcomes as the most important role in generating positive outcomes from the patients is played by nurses by providing them efficient care and timely recognizing and responding to patients deteriorating conditions (Oner et al., 2020).

Quality Indicator Selection 

Patient satisfaction with Pain management is the quality indicator that will be discussed in this assessment. Pain Management is the most important quality indicator that can be used to assess the performance of the nurses as patients’ satisfaction with pain assures the well-being of the patient (Adongo et al., 2023)t. The major problem in hospitals is related to relieving patients’ pain because sometimes pain becomes unbearable for the patients which demands more care and efficient treatment from the nursing staff and healthcare professionals. Nursing staff managing to control the pain of the patient can deliberately become the most efficient nurse as it has been already discussed that nursing staff is the major entity while dealing with aptient safety and care and most importantly satisfaction and wellbeing of the patients. Patients in pain are more vulnerable and require great efficiency from the nursing staff to calm down the patient and help the patient manage the pain until it recovers completely. The efficient communication skills of the nurses play a major role in providing satisfaction to the patients in pain along with the drugs and medicines (Bolanos et al., 2023). Severe pain and ill management of pain can lead to worse patient conditions resulting in harmful events. Therefore efficient pain management of the patients is needed for the satisfaction and well-being of the patients.

Monitoring of Quality Indicators

Quality Indicators are those indicators that help in evaluating the quality of the service provided by the nursing staff to the patient for the improvement of the patient’s health and safety (Young & Smith, 2022). This evaluation can not be possible if proper monitoring strategies are not applied to determine the performing strategies of the nurses regarding patient care. These quality standards provide room for new improvements, healthcare quality-increasing strategies, and nursing practices that can help in generating positive patient outcomes regarding patient satisfaction with pain management (Young & Smith, 2022). These are the indicators that need to be monitored constantly or on a daily routine basis so that patient satisfaction will be enhanced and patient well-being is maintained. Monitoring of quality indicators also helps in identifying the root causes of the problems that the nursing staff is facing in maintaining and increasing the standard of quality treatment of the patients and solutions to those problems by proper analysis and implementation techniques of creating high-quality patient safety.

Familiarity of Nurses with Quality Indicators

The quality of health of the patients is a concern of all the time for every healthcare organization and the most important component dealing with that concern is the nursing staff. Nursing staff plays a major role in recognizing and responding to the patient’s condition at first and then providing other necessary treatments. The nursing staff is responsible for the first interaction with the patients which is why they need to make the patients feel safe and healthy and ensure their well-being and satisfaction of the patients by effective communication (Gathara et al., 2020). Nursing staff can only provide quality treatment to the patients if they are familiar with the quality indicators and they are much more competent and able to cope with those quality standards. patient quality of health and life is the most important factor in any healthcare organization and it needs to be dealt with complete efficiency and accuracy. Complete efficiency and accuracy in maintaining the quality standards of patient safety can only be achieved if nursing staff have sufficient knowledge and information about quality treatment and patient satisfaction criteria (Gathara et al., 2020). Major patient health disasters occur due to human factors and to stop these disasters the training of staff is mandatory and the monitoring of quality standards is necessary. 

Collection and Distribution of Quality Indicator Data

In my interview with the head of the organization, we discussed patient satisfaction with pain management quality indicators and their measurement strategies. The next strategy for data collection is to properly organize the data so that it can be easily usable and accessible by staff members and other healthcare professionals. Electronic record-keeping systems are used to organize the data and many interdisciplinary teams play a key role in collecting and distributing the data about the quality indicators to the other staff members. Data collection regarding patient satisfaction with pain management is obtained through the Pain Treatment Satisfaction Scale. This scale is used to identify the satisfaction of the patient with the pain involving a few questionnaires and literature reviews.

Role of Nurses in Documentation of Data

Nurses being at the front end play a critical role in documenting the data received, collected, and distributed by interdisciplinary teams in a healthcare organization. Nurses organized the data gathered about the outcomes obtained from different healthcare departments and disciplines regarding the maintenance of quality indicators and organized this data for further use. The most important reason behind organizing and documenting the data is to ensure clear communication when presenting the data and to obtain useful outcomes from the results of the data. Proper communication with other professionals and team members regarding data gathered about quality indicators plays a key role in improving the quality standard for the future and thus enhancing the data-organizing approaches.

The Interdisciplinary Team’s Role in Collecting and Reporting Quality Indicator Data

Interdisciplinary teams are teams made from the collaboration of different departments including science, medical, computer, engineering, technology, information, and many more. All these disciplines gathered together to provide high-quality health and safety to the patients. The first step in improving and enhancing any healthcare-beneficial strategy is to collect sufficient data about that particular area of interest. The interdisciplinary teams collect data about safety indicators of the patients including infected patients, medication errors, then the outcomes of the patient about the particular treatment, and at the end performance regarding organizational perspective like how well organizations provide human and financial resources to the patients. This collected data is then reported to all departments with complete accuracy. Reported data helps the teams in analyzing and implementing trends that can be beneficial for the patient’s safety and health. 

Use of Nursing-Sensitive Quality Indicators by Health Care Organization

Healthcare organizations are deeply focused on providing high-quality health and safety to patients. Nursing-Sensitive indicators (NSI) evaluation helps the health organization in analyzing and assessing the key reasons for the unsuccessful implementation of the practices needed to improve the quality of patient health and safety. Nursing-Sensitive quality Indicators (NSQI) plays a vital role in improving and enhancing the quality of the patient health and safety. this quality can only be obtained by strictly acting on NSQI rules and taking patients outcomes with accuracy and efficacity. the patient’s outcomes help the organization in understanding the problems regarding care provided by health professionals. Electronic systems are also used to enhance patient satisfaction and well-being by ensuring the high leave security and confidentiality of patient data.

Nursing-Sensitive Quality Indicator Establishes Evidence-Based Practice Guidelines

The use of technology helps the nursing staff in providing improved health and safety to the patients. NDNQI helps the staff in establishing protocols that can enhance their performance to patient safety and satisfaction. The data collected and reported by NDNQI regrading the performance evaluation of the nurses helps the nursing staff in understanding their weak areas and the potential measures to improve those weaknesses and strengthen their skills and abilities to actively monitor patients. Collaboration of interdisciplinary teams in data gathering about patient outcomes and then distribution of the collected, organized, and documented data to different departments also helps the nursing staff in developing the essence of maintaining a high level of patient health and satisfaction. Moreover, electronic and sensor devices also help the nursing staff in effectively, monitoring and guiding the patients regarding their health condition so that they can stay healthy and safe.

Conclusion

Nursing informatics allows the use of technology most effectively and efficiently along with the implementation of Nursing-sensitive quality indicators. NSQI plays a major role in ensuring the safety of the patients along with enhancing the level of patient satisfaction and well-being which is the most important concern and priority of any healthcare organization (Gathara et al., 2020). nurses always act as the most important entity in ensuring patient safety as nurses are always by the side of the patients from the time of their admission till the time of their discharge. This gives nurses a lot of opportunities to effectively deal with the patient’s health conditions thus ensuring the high-quality health and safety of the patients. data collection and distribution regarding the quality indicators by the interdisciplinary teams with other staff members and healthcare professionals for the betterment of healthcare practices alos plays a major role in ensuring the safety of the patients along with patient information privacy and insecurity. 

References​​

Afaneh, T., Moghli, F-A., & Ahmad, M. (2021). Nursing-sensitive indicators: A concept analysis. Nursing Management, 28(3), 28–33. https://doi.org/10.7748/nm.2021.e1982

Adongo, D. W., Benneh, C. K., Amekyeh, H., Adedia, D., Tandoh, A., Armah, I. J., Agyen, J. K., Okyere, E., & Woode, E. (2023). Correlates of patient satisfaction with pain management at the Ho Teaching Hospital in Ghana: A cross-sectional study. Scientific African, 21, e01806. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sciaf.2023.e01806

Bolanos, A-B., Dominguez, A-A., Valencia, L., Marrero, P-J., Ruiz, S-L., & Perez, A-R. (2023). Pain prevalence and satisfaction with pain management in inpatients: A cross-sectional study. Healthcare, 11(24), 3191. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11243191

Gathara, D., Zosi, M., Serem, G., Nzinga, J., Murphy, G. A. V., Jackson, D., Brownie, S., & English, M. (2020). Developing metrics for nursing quality of care for low- and middle-income countries: A scoping review linked to stakeholder engagement. Human Resources for Health, 18(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-020-00470-2

Harolds, J. A., & Miller, L. B. (2020). Quality and safety in health care: The national database for nursing quality indicators and the practice environment scale of the nursing work index. Clinical Nuclear Medicine, (6). https://doi.org/10.1097/rlu.0000000000003275

Luo, L., Rakhmilla, L. R., Zhang, M., & Liao, B. (2022). Application of obstetric nursing-sensitive quality indicators in continuous quality improvement. American Journal of Translational Research,14(1), 643–655. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8829623/

Oner, B., Zengul, F. D., Oner, N., Ivankova, N. V., Karadag, A., & Patrician, P. A. (2020). Nursing‐sensitive indicators for nursing care: A systematic review (1997–2017). Nursing Open, 8(3), 1005–1022. https://doi.org/10.1002/nop2.654

Young, M., & Smith, M. A. (2022). Standards and evaluation of healthcare quality, safety, and person centered care. StatPearls Publishing. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK576432/