Leadership & Safety DB
Visit the website of a nursing specialty organization and summarize the information about a patient safety issue. What standards for patient safety were discussed? How are recommendations and standards such as AHRQ or the National Quality Forum addressed?
Upon visiting the American Nurses Association website, they discussed how they developed high-impact patient safety measures, for which they have more than two decades of evidence. The evidence is based on patient harm and death having a low rate that is associated with higher staffing levels. The Measures Application Partnership (MAP) prioritized these measures originally developed by the ANA. In the patient safety regulations that were proposed the MAP recommendations were considered by CMS. The ANA developed the Nursing Hours per Patient Day (NQF endorsed, NQ# 0205), and Skill Mix (RN, LPN, assistive personnel, and contract (NQF endorsed NQF# 0204) measures.
The Nursing Hours per Patient Day are as follows:
NSC-13.3 (RN hours per patient day) - NSC-13.1 (RN hours per patient day) – The number of productive hours RNs work with direct patient care responsibilities per patient day for each inpatient unit in a calendar month. (Nurse staffing measures 2017)
NSC-13.2 (Total nursing care hours per patient day) – The number of productive hours worked by nursing staff (RN, LPN/LVN, and UAP) with direct patient care responsibilities per patient day for each in-patient unit in a calendar month. (Nurse staffing measures 2017)
Measure focus is the structure of care quality in acute care hospital units. (Nurse staffing measures 2017)
NQF Measure Description:
NSC-12.1 - Percentage of total productive nursing hours worked by RN (employee and contract) with direct patient care responsibilities by hospital unit. (Nurse staffing measures 2017)
NSC-12.2 - Percentage of total productive nursing hours worked by LPN/LVN (employee and contract) with direct patient care responsibilities by hospital unit. (Nurse staffing measures 2017)
NSC-12.3 - Percentage of total productive nursing hours worked by UAP (employee and contract) with direct patient care responsibilities by hospital unit. (Nurse staffing measures 2017)
NSC-12.4 - Percentage of total productive nursing hours worked by contract or agency staff (RN, LPN/LVN, and UAP) with direct patient care responsibilities by hospital unit. (Nurse staffing measures 2017)
Note that the skill mix of the nursing staff (NSC-12.1, NSC-12.2, and NSC-12.3) represents the proportions of total productive nursing hours by each type of nursing staff (RN, LPN/LVN, and UAP); NSC-12.4 is a separate rate. (Nurse staffing measures 2017)
Measure focus is the structure of care quality in acute care hospital units. (Nurse staffing measures 2017)
Nurse staffing measures. ANA. (2017, October 20). https://www.nursingworld.org/practice-policy/nurse-staffing/nurse-staffing-measures/