Nursing Quality To Be Measured For Compassion Of Care, UK

Main Category: Nursing / Midwifery
Article Date: 19 Jun 2008 - 2:00 PDT

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Treating patients with compassion, reducing the number of falls on wards and good hand-washing are some of the indicators that could be used in a groundbreaking move to measure the quality of nursing care in the NHS, Health Secretary Alan Johnson will announce later today.

In a keynote speech to the NHS Confederation in Manchester this afternoon, Alan Johnson will set out plans to develop a set of metrics that assess not only effectiveness and safety of nursing care, but also how compassionately care has been delivered. This commitment will be included in the Workforce Strategy of Lord Darzi's review of the NHS as part of a quality framework covering the whole range of care that patients receive.

Consultation with nurses at the RCN national congress revealed that the profession would like more recognition for the quality of care they deliver to patients. They also want to be able to benchmark the work they are doing on their ward and compare it with their peers to drive up the quality of care.

Alan Johnson said:

"Our nurses do a brilliant job, often delivering very intimate care. They know instinctively that a patient's understanding of quality in the NHS is about much more than excellent clinical care. The personal touch is so important too. Patients want to be kept well-informed by staff and treated with compassion and sensitivity.

"It is a wonderful reflection of the nursing profession that they want to do everything possible to improve the already high standards of care in the NHS. Measuring quality against indicators such as dignity, respect and communication will help them achieve this."

Dr. Peter Carter, Chief Executive and General Secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said:

"We are delighted that the government has recognised the need to measure quality in nursing care. These new standards are groundbreaking in that they will directly recognise nurses for the kind of care that patients really value.

"Nurses across the UK work tirelessly to ensure that patients are treated with dignity, compassion and sensitivity, aspects of care which are so important but rarely measured."

Consultation has already shown that the indicators should focus on three overarching themes:

- Compassionate care: This could measure whether patients are treated with compassion and whether they are fully kept informed of what is happening with their treatment.

- Effectiveness. This could include the nutritional state of patients, minimisation of pain and results of hand-washing audits.

- Safety. This could encompass things like the number of falls on a ward or infection rates

As well as helping nurses improve the quality of care, patients will be able to use the information to make choices about where they are treated.

The Next Stage Review interim report said there would be a quality framework supported by metrics. We have already started working with the NHS and professional bodies to identify metrics that comprehensively capture the quality of care that staff from the whole clinical team give and patients receive. These metrics will develop over time but will include things like patient experience, safety, clinical and patient-reported outcomes. It will cover the whole range of staff groups and factors that affect the quality of care that patients receive.

Department of Health , UK