Survey of nursing quality assurance programs in selected hospitals in Alberta, Canada

This study represents a survey of the nursing quality assurance programs in 12 hospitals in Alberta. The objectives of the study were: to identify the nature, content and costs of the programs, to determine the extent of nurse involvement in the design and operation of the programs, and the value and importance nurses place on their programs. The major findings of the study tend to support the view that the principles of organizational change theory have not been adequately addressed in terms of nursing quality assurance programs. Generally, nurses reported that they were insufficiently informed concerning their programs. Among the study recommendations is a call for improvements in the audit tools used, with greater emphasis being placed on the patient and the nurse providing the care and more decentralization of programs to the unit level to improve staff involvement and program relevancy.