ANA To Open Premier Nursing Performance Database To Top Researchers

Main Category: Nursing / Midwifery
Article Date: 02 Dec 2009 - 3:00 PDT

email to a friend   printer friendly   opinions  

The American Nurses Association (ANA) has established a review board to evaluate proposals from leading health care researchers and scientists who are seeking access to the nation's richest database of nursing performance measures, ANA's National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators® (NDNQI®).

The NDNQI Research Council has created a system for submitting research proposals online and for reviewing and scoring the proposals to determine if they meet the criteria for access to the data housed by NDNQI, a program of ANA's National Center for Nursing Quality® (NCNQ®).

"The NDNQI data program is on the cutting edge of quality improvement in health care and nursing care. The future direction of health care is decision-making based on evidence of what works best, and to have the evidence, you need to collect, compare and report the nursing-sensitive data like NDNQI does," said ANA President Rebecca M. Patton, MSN, RN, CNOR. "ANA is pleased to be able to open this valuable tool to highly-qualified researchers who will know how to identify and use the data they need to advance the profession of nursing and the quality of health care through their projects."

The NDNQI program collects data quarterly from individual nursing units from 1,500 participating hospitals, and evaluates the connection between the quality of nursing care and patient outcomes on measures such as patient falls, infections and hospital-acquired pressure ulcers.

In any given quarter, more than 12,000 nursing units are reporting data. The NDNQI data also can be used to determine links between nurse staffing levels, nurse skill mix and patient outcomes, and to measure nurse satisfaction and the practice environment through surveys.

The 15-member council is comprised of nursing scientists, nursing practice experts, nursing administrators, and health information technology specialists, as well as ANA staff and leadership. It is co-chaired by Isis Montalvo, MBA, MS, RN, the NCNQ's director, and Nancy Dunton, PhD, research professor at the University of Kansas' School of Nursing and NDNQI's director since its establishment in 1998. The University of Kansas manages the NDNQI program under a contract with ANA.

ANA is encouraging scientists and researchers to submit research proposals to the council for review through a submission process on the NCNQ Web site, www.ncnq.org. NCNQ advocates for nursing quality through quality measurement, novel research, and collaborative learning.

The ANA is the only full-service professional organization representing the interests of the nation's 2.9 million registered nurses through its constituent member nurses associations, its organizational affiliates, and its workforce advocacy affiliate, the Center for American Nurses. The ANA advances the nursing profession by fostering high standards of nursing practice, promoting the rights of nurses in the workplace, projecting a positive and realistic view of nursing, and by lobbying the Congress and regulatory agencies on health care issues affecting nurses and the public.

Source
American Nurses Association

• Additional
• References
• Citations