Graduate Research School

Sally Wilson

Thesis

Indicators of quality nursing care in an Australian paediatric setting

Summary

The purpose of this study is to develop and validate nursing sensitive outcomes that can be measured within paediatric hospitals in Australia with no increase in workload burden to clinical nurses.

With increased accountability, decreasing numbers of nurses and finite financial resources, there is a need to measure nurses' provision of quality care. Therefore, indicators of quality nursing care (nursing sensitive outcomes) need to be identified so they can be empirically measured to establish the differences nurses make to patient outcomes.

This study will identify how the quality of nursing care can be measured within Australian children's hospitals. Subsequently, these nursing-sensitive outcomes will be measured in a paediatric hospital.

Furthermore, factors that influence nursing-sensitive outcomes will be identified and an association between nurse staffing profile and occurrence of paediatric nursing-sensitive outcomes will be sought.

Why my research is important

The purpose of measuring the quality of nursing care in acute care paediatric settings is to achieve the highest level of patient safety and health care outcomes for children. Furthermore, validated measures will enhance the clinical practice of nurses, promote public accountability, provide direction for nursing education, support benchmarking and sharing of best practices, and facilitate priority areas for future research. Findings will also contribute to nursing workforce discussions about the structures and processes that should be in place to produce the most desirable patient outcomes.

Funding

• NHMRC Public Health Postgraduate Research Scholarship