A guidance framework to aid in the selection of nursing and midwifery care process metrics and indicators

To describe the development of a guidance framework to assist nurses and midwives in selecting nursing and midwifery care process metrics and indicators for use in practice.

Process metrics are measures of care provision activities by nurses and midwives.

Phase 1 was a rapid review assessment of the literature conducted to identify an initial framework. Six electronic databases were searched with Google Scholar and reference tracking performed. Phase 2 was expert review of the developing framework by nursing and midwifery experts in practice, academia and an international expert in quality care metrics.

The literature assessment yielded 28 papers with 59 metric attributes identified. From this, a six-domain framework was developed. Following expert review, the framework was reduced to four domains: "Process Focused," "Important," "Operational" and "Feasible."

This is the first framework specifically to guide nurses and midwives in selecting nursing and midwifery process metrics and indicators.