Importance of Metrics and Nurse-Sensitive Indicators

We are constantly reminded of the importance of monitoring our patient outcome metrics and benchmarking our nurse-sensitive indicators to determine the quality and effectiveness of nursing care. Although the article by Connor et al is focused on developing tools to measure nurse-sensitive quality metrics in pediatric cardio-vascular care, there are some important reminders for the nursing community caring for adults. Nurse-sensitive indicators help us to benchmark and compare performance, share best practices for improving quality, and better inform nurse staffing models.

So why is this important now? We are in various levels of contingency to crisis operations during a pandemic. Supplies may be limited—but really, doesn’t that happen even when we aren’t in pandemic mode? Intravenous tubings, medication shortages … the list goes on. Granted, we aren’t used to having shortages of personal protective equipment. Staffing models have been adapted—again, individual units and hospitals may have to deal with...