Nurse reported quality of care: a measure of hospital quality

Res Nurs Health. 2012 Dec;35(6):566-75. doi: 10.1002/nur.21503. Epub 2012 Aug 21.

Abstract

As the primary providers of round-the-clock bedside care, nurses are well positioned to report on hospital quality of care. Researchers have not examined how nurses' reports of quality correspond with standard process or outcomes measures of quality. We assess the validity of evaluating hospital quality by aggregating hospital nurses' responses to a single item that asks them to report on quality of care. We found that a 10% increment in the proportion of nurses reporting excellent quality of care was associated with lower odds of mortality and failure to rescue; greater patient satisfaction; and higher composite process of care scores for acute myocardial infarction, pneumonia, and surgical patients. Nurse reported quality of care is a useful indicator of hospital performance.

Publication types

  • Multicenter Study
  • Research Support, N.I.H., Extramural
  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Attitude of Health Personnel*
  • Data Collection / methods
  • Humans
  • Nursing Staff, Hospital*
  • Outcome and Process Assessment, Health Care*
  • Quality Indicators, Health Care*
  • Regression Analysis
  • Reproducibility of Results
  • Retrospective Studies
  • United States