Nurse Performance Metrics: A Scoping Review

The purposes of this scoping review are: 1) to identify instances in the literature that describe measuring individual nurse performance and 2) characterize those metrics.

The impact of nurses on patient outcomes has been demonstrated at the unit or hospital level, with nurses measured in aggregate. There is an opportunity to evaluate individual nurse performance by creating metrics that capture it.

A scoping review based on the framework published by the Joanna Briggs Institute was performed.

Researchers identified 12 articles. Three themes were trended: the emerging nature of these metrics in the literature, variability in their applications, and performance implications.

Individual nurse performance metrics is an emerging body of research with variability in the types of metrics developed. There is an opportunity for future researchers to work with nurse leaders and staff nurses to optimize these metrics and to use them to support nursing practice and patient care.