An Overview of Quality Improvement Processes and Data Analysis in Perioperative Nursing Practice

AORN sets quality improvement (QI) standards that nurses can use to collect and interpret data. There are a variety of benchmarks available from national organizations and regulatory bodies: AORN provides evidence-based guidelines for perioperative practice, whereas The Joint Commission and the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services specify patient care requirements. Nurses can use the subject, objective observations, analysis, and plan (SOAP) format to assess, diagnose, plan, and communicate information related to the QI process to key stakeholders. When participating in QI activities, perioperative nurses may find it helpful to understand the importance of values that measure location (eg, mean, median, mode) and variability; display data in a visual format (eg, histogram, run chart), and determine significance (eg, t test, P value). An understanding of QI processes should help nurses work to improve patient care and evaluate effectiveness of the actions through statistical analysis.