Using data to show the impact of nursing work on patient outcomes
- Leary, Professor Alison
- Dix, Ann
This article has been double-blind peer reviewed
In this article…
Why high-quality data is essential to demonstrate the impact of nursing
The limitations of current nursing activity data
How data could be used to improve patient outcomes
Key points
Reliable data showing the impact of nursing activity on outcomes is vital for workforce modelling and has huge potential to improve care
Data on nursing activity is rarely captured accurately, and does not reflect its complexity
Oversimplification of nurses’ work means workloads are consistently underestimated
It is possible to use routinely collected datasets to demonstrate the impact of nurses’ work
Nurses need to ensure that data captured reflects the real work of nursing, particularly in relation to patient safety
Abstract
A recent independent study using data from Public Health England linking patient data with lung cancer nurse specialists’ activity showed patients whose care was managed by a nurse specialist had better outcomes. This illustrates how high-quality data can be used to understand the impact of nursing activity. However, nursing activity is not accurately captured in routine healthcare data, which does not reflect the complexity of care. Using data to better understand the activity of nursing has huge potential to improve care. It can tell us how many nurses we need, where best to use nursing expertise and the impact of nursing activity on patient outcomes. However, poor data can lead to false assumptions about nursing that can be detrimental to patient care. Nurses need to take a more influential role in the development and use of healthcare data to ensure it reflects the work of nursing and its impact on patient care.
Citation
Using data to show the impact of nursing work on patient outcomes. Nursing Times; 114: 10, 23-25.