Measuring quality in community nursing: a mixed methods study
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Measuring Quality in Community Nursing: A mixed methods study
IRAS ID
143848
Contact name
Susan Horrocks
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University of the West of England, Bristol
Research summary
Community nursing offers alternative provision to costly hospital care and serves some of the frailest patients. The care provided is, however, largely invisible to planners and managers, research is limited and the services are poorly understood. For these reasons quality measurement in community nursing is the focus of this study. We will investigate the selection, application and usefulness of quality indicators for community nursing, aiming to identify what works, for whom and in what circumstances to ensure that such schemes achieve their intended goal of improving the quality of patient care.
Quality indicators help assess the quality of health services by measuring aspects of care patients receive or the outcome of that care. There are over 150 providers of community nursing services across England and each has a bespoke scheme of national and locally selected indicators, changing every year, making comparison within and between services difficult. Despite the millions spent directly on quality schemes and indirectly on staff time to select and administer these, there is little information about how indicators are chosen, data are collected and used or how useful they are in practice. Knowing more about the circumstances in which quality indicators can be useful will help to maximise their potential to improve care.
The study comprises a survey and case study. First a national survey of community quality indicator schemes will provide a picture of indicator schemes in use across England and identify five case sites. In each site, in time with the commissioning cycle, observations and interviews will be conducted to investigate how quality indicators are assessed, selected and applied in practice, exploring their usefulness from the point of view of commissioners, provider managers, frontline staff and service users. Ten workshops will be held nationally to test the results with experience in other locations, thus strengthening their transferability.
REC name
Yorkshire & The Humber - Leeds West Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
14/YH/1059
Date of REC Opinion
24 Jul 2014
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion