National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQI)®
For more than a decade, research has shown significant links between safe staffing levels and positive outcomes for hospitalized patients. Nursing-sensitive indicators, such as those found in the National Database of Nursing Quality Indicators (NDNQI)®, offer prime measures of the nursing workforce, processes of care and patient outcomes. NDNQI data supports the impact of appropriate nurse staffing on reducing patient complications and mortality, promoting safe work environments, and improving job satisfaction and retention among nurses.
The American Nurses Association (ANA)’s leadership role in health quality indicator development stems from its 1994 Patient Safety and Quality Initiative, which led to the definition and adoption of ten nursing-sensitive indicators. In 1998, following feasibility studies conducted by seven state nurses associations, the ANA established the NDNQI, which is administered by the University of Kansas Medical Center School of Nursing under contract to the ANA. Participation today includes over 1200 facilities located in all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
The NDNQI is the only national nursing quality measurement program which provides hospitals with unit-level performance reports along with comparisons to national averages and percentile rankings. Data are collected on the structure, process and outcomes of nursing care. As part of the ANA’s National Center for Nursing Quality (www.nursingquality.org), the NDNQI program is committed to assisting member facilities with indicator development and database activities that promote quality patient care.
The NDNQI indicators, many of which are endorsed by the National Quality Forum, include: patient falls; patient falls with injury; pressure ulcers (community-, hospital- and unit-acquired); nursing skill mix; nursing hours per patient day; RN surveys (job satisfaction, practice environment scale); RN education and certification; pediatric pain assessment cycle; pediatric IV filtration rate; psychiatric patient assault rate; restraints prevalence; nurse turnover; and nosocomial infections (ventilator-assisted pneumonia, central line associated blood stream infection, catheter associated urinary tract infections).
Most importantly, these indicators provide key data for nursing staff and managers to consider in the development of unit-based staffing plans. By reviewing data and evaluating nursing performance relative to patient outcomes, nurses can set goals for quality improvement at the unit level. Nurses can trend the data over multiple quarters and participate in pilot tests of new quality indicators. This data can now drive safe staffing.
Read a recent article about NDNQI.