Part 6. Education for value-informed nursing practice

With the ongoing transition to value-based health care, a strong command of foundational economic concepts, like cost and value, and the ability to thoughtfully engage in value-informed nursing practice have become essential for the future of the nursing profession. Earlier in this six-part series, we explained value-informed nursing practice, its historical, economic, and ethical foundation, its promise for an environmentally responsible, innovation-driven future health care, and why its adoption requires a reframing of some of the nursing's professional norms and behaviors. This paper concludes the series with one of the most important issues—education for value-informed nursing practice. We begin by setting forth our vision of how nursing students will learn and apply value informed nursing practice, consider challenges that nurse educators will face, and offer some suggestions for engraining value into the consciousness of the nursing profession.     

Value-informed nursing practice is needed to make our healthcare systems more environmentally sustainable

In this 3rd part of our 6-part series on value-informed nursing practice—practice that focuses on both achieving desired patient outcomes and minimizing the use of costly resources to achieve these outcomes—we focus on the importance of nurses in improving environmental outcomes and reducing costly environmental waste. We also propose how nursing education needs to change to prepare the next generation of nurses to effectively address environmental problems through providing value-informed nursing practice.     

Value-informed nursing practice: What is it and how to make it a reality

Nurses make decisions about the use of costly resources in countless care delivery settings 24 hours a day. Consequently, nurses are inseparably connected to not only the quality and safety of care, but to the cost-of-care as well. This article is Part 1 of a 6-part series on value-informed nursing practice. It describes the concept of ‘value-informed nursing practice’—practice that focuses not only on outcomes, but also on the cost of care—as a new way to envision nursing practice.     

Computerization of patient acuity and nursing care planning. New approach to improved patient care and cost-effective staffing

Patient classification systems are essential for nurse administrators to justify nursing staff and to project budget. To answer these needs effectively, a computerized patient classification system must be customized to existing physical and human resources within each health care facility. Nursing administrators at Riverside Medical Center met this need by developing a computerized patient classification system that integrates patient acuity with patient care plans and nursing diagnoses. Direct cost accounting of nursing care according to patient needs and outcomes can be justified by correlating this management and practice data.     

A portrait of district nursing: its contribution to primary health care

This paper explores the role and contribution of district nursing within primary health care. Examples of how this service is organised within different health care systems are used to discuss the context-dependent nature and challenges of the work. By drawing on UK policy change, health priorities and recent research into district nursing, the paper concludes that, in attempting to deal with the challenges of health care in the 21st century, the significance and potential of district nursing services are frequently overlooked. It is recommended that a research strategy for district nursing should build on the profession's comprehensive understanding of the needs of families and communities and should aim to provide evidence for practice that will further improve patient and client outcomes.     

A portrait of district nursing: its contribution to primary health care

This paper explores the role and contribution of district nursing within primary health care. Examples of how this service is organised within different health care systems are used to discuss the context-dependent nature and challenges of the work. By drawing on UK policy change, health priorities and recent research into district nursing, the paper concludes that, in attempting to deal with the challenges of health care in the 21st century, the significance and potential of district nursing services are frequently overlooked. It is recommended that a research strategy for district nursing should build on the profession's comprehensive understanding of the needs of families and communities and should aim to provide evidence for practice that will further improve patient and client outcomes.     

Nursing professionalization and welfare state policies: A critical review of structural factors influencing the development of nursing and the nursing workforce

Nursing professionalization is both ongoing and global, being significant not only for the nursing workforce but also for patients and healthcare systems. For this reason, it is important to have an in‐depth understanding of this process and the factors that could affect it. This literature review utilizes a welfare state approach to examine macrolevel structural determinants of nursing professionalization, addressing a previously identified gap in this literature, and synthesizes research on the relevance of studying nursing professionalization. The use of a welfare state framework facilitates the understanding that the wider social, economic, and political system exercises significant power over the distribution of resources in a society, providing a glimpse into the complex politics of health and health care. The findings shed light on structural factors outside of nursing, such as country‐level education, health, labor market, and gender policies that could impact the process of professionalization and thus could be utilized to strengthen nursing through facilitating increased professionalization levels. Addressing gender inequalities and other structural determinants of nursing professionalization could contribute to achieving health equity and could benefit health systems through enhanced availability, skill‐level, and sustainability of nursing human resources, improved and efficient access to care, improved patient outcomes, and cost savings.     

Representing nursing practice: evaluating the effectiveness of a nursing classification system.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of the International Classification for Nursing Practice (ICNP) in representing the contributions of nursing to health-care outcomes in Canada.The ICNP BetaVersion was used to code retrospective nursing data extracted from patient records originating in acute care, in-patient mental health care, home care, and long-term-care practice settings. In spite of wide variation in documentation practices, ICNP achieved matches with the majority of nursing data.The study revealed areas for improvement in the ICNP BetaVersion, specifically with regard to granularity related to the use of natural language terms and professional terms. Recommendations for further development through research in nursing-sensitive outcomes are discussed.     

Safe practice of population-focused nursing care: Development of a public health nursing concept

Patient safety, a cornerstone of quality nursing care in most healthcare organizations, has not received attention in the specialty of public health nursing, owing to the conceptual challenges of applying this individual level concept to populations. Public health nurses (PHNs), by definition, provide population-focused care. Safe practice of population-focused nursing care involves preventing errors that would affect the health of entire populations and communities. The purpose of this article is to conceptually develop the public health nursing concept of safe practice of population-focused care and calls for related research. Key literature on patient safety is reviewed. Concepts applying to population-focused care are organized based on Donabedian's Framework. Structural, operational and system failures and process errors of omission and commission can occur at the population level of practice and potentially influence outcomes for population-patients. Practice, research and policy implications are discussed. Safe PHN population-focused practice deserves attention.     

Challenges and directions for nursing in the pay-for-performance movement

Pay-for-performance (P4P) initiatives attempt to drive quality of care by aligning desired care processes and outcomes with reimbursement. P4P schemes have emerged at a time of great concern about safety and quality in health care and in the face of a growing nurse shortage. This article discusses the state of the literature linking structures for providing nursing care, measures of process heavily favored in P4P initiatives, and patient outcomes and outlines how P4P is expected to affect nursing practice. It also presents directions for managing practice settings to cope with P4P and for steering nursing's involvement in this area of health policy. As implementation broadens, it remains to be seen whether unintended consequences emerge or whether nurses are successful in using the programs and the data sets that result from them to justify investments in nursing services and solidify the profession's position.     

The clinical nurse leader: a catalyst for improving quality and patient safety

Aim  The clinical nurse leader (CNL^®) is a new nursing role introduced by the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN). This paper describes its potential impact in practice.
Background  Significant pressures are being placed on health care delivery systems to improve patient care outcomes and lower costs in an environment of diminishing resources.
Method  A naturalistic approach is used to evaluate the impact the CNL has had on outcomes of care. Case studies describe the CNL implementation experiences at three different practice settings within the same geographic region.
Results  Cost savings, including improvement on Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) core measures, are realized quickly in settings where the CNL role has been integrated into the care delivery model.
Conclusions  With the growing calls for improved outcomes and more cost-effective care, the CNL role provides an opportunity for nursing to lead innovation by maximizing health care quality while minimizing costs.
Implications for nursing management  Nursing is in a unique position to address problems that plague the nation's health system. The CNL represents an exciting and promising opportunity for nursing to take a leadership role, in collaboration with multiple practice partners, and implement quality improvement and patient safety initiatives across all health care settings.     

Revisiting the nursing metaparadigm: Acknowledging technology as foundational to progressing nursing knowledge

The nursing metaparadigm, as described by Fawcett in 1984, includes human, health, nursing, and the environment, all of which support theory development by giving direction to our focus as a scientific body. Nursing scientists make their mark in biotechnological applications, mobile health, informatics, and human factors research. We give voice to the patient through design feedback and incorporating technological advancements in our evolving nursing knowledge; however, we have not formally acknowledged technology in our metaparadigm. To continue patient-centered care in this age where machines are enmeshed in daily human life, we propose technology must be a domain of the metaparadigm to continue advancing nursing science and knowledge. In this paper, we propose a separate domain of technology within the metaparadigm to challenge nurses to consider approaches within their research and practice of how technology will impact patient care and their personal development within the profession. A technology-specific domain within the metaparadigm also is a signal to other bodies of science of our willingness and ability to run at pace with novel, exciting new discoveries while adding our perspective. Nurses may become active agents in novel developments rather than passive adopters, continuing our legacy of patient advocacy through new knowledge generation. Emerging and continuing nurse leadership has set the stage for the next era of nurse-led innovation and technology development, which provides an opportunity to embed technology as a core aspect of the nursing metaparadigm.     

Lessons from eleven primary health care nursing innovations in New Zealand

Introduction:  In New Zealand in 2003, 11 primary health care (PHC) nursing innovation projects and an evaluation of the initiative were funded by the Ministry of Health to develop and explore the ways new models of nursing practice could help address health inequalities and contribute to PHC.
Design and Methods:  A research-and-development approach was used in the evaluation. Data were gathered from interviews with national stakeholders, workshops with personnel from all projects, visits to each project site and case studies of four projects. Analysis involved assessing each project individually as well as the projects as a whole.
Context:  The initiative was one of many international and local PHC developments in this period designed to reduce health inequalities and improve patient care and health outcomes.
Findings:  Each project was developed from a different starting point; was located in different parts of the health system; and had different levels of funding. Some were principally focused on leading nursing development; others focused on developing nursing practice. Each involved influencing or providing nursing services, nurse education, leadership and service integration. Most projects progressed well, but some had limited success.
Lessons:  Lessons are on many levels, and include those related to: developing successful innovation; the importance of nursing leadership; developing the nursing workforce; and advancing nursing practice.
Conclusion:  The funding of the innovative projects enabled nurses to pioneer developments. Such funding is important, as it paves the way for change and provides an opportunity for reflection and new learnings.     

Evidence-based nursing: a change dynamic in a managed care system

The emerging evidence‐based decision‐making phenomenon represents a new opportunity for nursing professionals. This opportunity arises because managed care brings about a new motivation to incorporate existing evidence and research skill into the health care delivery process. In order to participate fully in managed care systems nursing research must be uncompromising in its focus on the characteristics of the client group, the processes of intervention and the outcomes of intervention. It is argued that evidence‐based nursing, as a process, needs to consider three questions. How do we know what practice needs to be changed? How do we enable this change in practice? and how do we ensure that change brings about no further harm? The greatest danger in the process of identification and prioritizing by a group is the bias that can occur because of conscious and unconscious habits associated with power relationships within groups. Nominal Group and Delphi techniques are suggested to alleviate this. Action research is proposed as a method of dealing with, the critical issue of risk management.     

Critical concerns and commitments of a new department of nursing

Critical concerns of a department of nursing are efforts to take a measure of academic health—“how are we doing?” students and faculty ask. In commitment comes obligation and we have seen those obligations to be those of self-development, to patient care, to professional growth, and to excellence in the university setting. At a time when this department is well into its development, we see special privileges available to student and faculty and patient-opportunities to be a part of the “growing edge” of ideas, knowledge, skills, practice, and technology. In dedicating this new medical complex and inaugurating the department of nursing we are a part of shaping the direction of change in the health professions.     

Health care managers' perspectives on new nursing and midwifery roles: perceived impact on patient care and cost effectiveness

Aims  The aim of this study was to explore new nursing and midwifery roles and associated levels of practice from the health care providers' perspective. This paper will present findings relating to the perceived cost effectiveness of these roles and their impact on patient care.
Background  Profound changes in the way the health care systems are organized, managed and financed have resulted in the proliferation of new nursing and midwifery roles. However, the evidence base for these workforce developments is limited, especially with regard to health care providers' perspectives on cost effectiveness and patient outcomes.
Method  Qualitative interviews were carried out with all Directors of Nursing in the 18 Health and Social Services (HSS) Trusts and the Chief Nurses and Directors of Primary Care in the four HSS Boards in Northern Ireland.
Results  Key findings were as follows: there was widespread support for the development of these roles, they are perceived to have a positive impact on patient care; however, the need for support was recognized to ensure the continuation of such roles. Securing funding was problematic and this was influential on the kind of new roles that were developed.
Implications for Nursing Management  Issues relating to effective implementation and the need for further research into the efficacy and effectives of such initiatives is required.     

Research utilization: a challenge for nursing graduate education to improve patient care

To improve patient care, hospitals and other health care facilities are looking to improve patient outcomes through examining how nursing care can be changed or modified based on research. The process of applying research results into clinical practice is called research utilization (RU). In this article, a master's level research utilization course is described. The process of research utilization is highlighted along with specifics regarding course development and evaluation methods. Graduate level research courses such as this one can assist students to demonstrate competency in research utilization including: synthesis of research literature, development of practice guidelines based on research, and identification of strategies to carry out RU protocols and evaluate outcomes.     

A review of outcomes of individualised nursing interventions on adult patients

Aims and objectives. This review describes the outcomes of individualised nursing interventions on adult patients. Background. Although the delivery of individualised nursing interventions is important there is limited evidence about how these interventions enhance patient outcomes. Methods. A computerised search was undertaken using the Cochrane Library, MEDLINE, CINAHL and PsycINFO. The selection criteria chosen were: reports of individualised nursing interventions focusing on adult patients in a variety of health care settings and using experimental designs. These involved randomised controlled trials, clinical controlled trials and pre‐ and posttest controlled studies. After a four‐stage inclusion strategy 31 documents were accepted for the review. Results. The studies were mostly focused in preventative arenas such as health promotion and counselling. Others were care of older people in the community and in hospital and patients with chronic diseases. Over half of the nursing interventions (58%) involved educational or counselling activities which seem to be more effective than ordinary, standardised or routine education and counselling. Overall, 81% of the studies reported a positive impact of individualised interventions on patient outcomes showing that there is evidence, though limited, that individualised interventions can produce positive patient outcomes. Conclusions. There is sufficient evidence, especially in specific areas such as patient education and counselling, to acknowledge that individualised interventions are superior to non‐individualised interventions. Evidence for this effect within clinical nursing interventions on patient outcomes was limited by the scarcity of research in this area. There is a need for additional intervention studies to determine the effect of individualised interventions in a wide variety of contexts. Relevance to clinical practice. Experience of health is individual. Therefore, nursing interventions should also be individualised to each patient. These findings show some promise that individualised interventions may be useful in delivering positive patient outcomes.     

Cultural competency and nursing care: an Australian perspective

AIMS: To propose a process that will facilitate cultural competence in Australian nursing practice. BACKGROUND: Cultural diversity is a prominent feature of the Australian health system and is impacting significantly on nursing care quality. A fictitious, but typical clinical exemplar is profiled that identifies cultural insensitivity in care practices leading to poor quality outcomes for the health consumer and her family. Strategies are proposed that will reverse this practice and promote culturally competent nursing care and that locates overseas qualified nurses in this process. CONCLUSION: This paper contributes to nursing care quality internationally by articulating strategies to achieve cultural competence in practice. Nurses must pay attention to interpersonal relationships and develop respect for the health consumer's value systems and ways of being, in order to protect their rights and avoid the tendency to stereotype individuals from particular cultures. The expertise of qualified nurses from different cultures can greatly assist this process.