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Quality assurance: is it professional insurance?
G D Lees1, J Richman, M A Salauroo
1Director of Nursing, Cheadle Royal Hospital, Cheshire.
Journal of Advanced Nursing
|November 1, 1987
Summary
Quality assurance (QA) in UK nursing integrates with existing systems but overlooks hospital complexity. It serves professional self-defense and adopts the medical model, objectifying patients.
Area of Science:
- Nursing
- Healthcare Management
- Quality Improvement
Background:
- Quality assurance (QA) is emerging as a significant development in nursing.
- The UK nursing context already possessed favorable conditions for QA adoption.
- The nursing process's systems-reasoning aligns with QA's measurement techniques.
Purpose of the Study:
- To outline the diffusion of QA into UK nursing theory and practice.
- To analyze the integration of QA within the nursing process.
- To critically evaluate the implications and limitations of QA in nursing.
Main Methods:
- Literature review and conceptual analysis of QA in nursing.
- Examination of the relationship between the nursing process and QA principles.
- Critical assessment of QA's impact on hospital organization and patient objectification.
Main Results:
- QA's integration is facilitated by existing nursing frameworks but downplays organizational complexity.
- A primary driver for QA adoption is professional self-defense against external pressures.
- Nursing's adoption of QA reinforces the medical model, leading to patient objectification.
Conclusions:
- QA's implementation in UK nursing is influenced by pre-existing structures and a need for professional self-protection.
- The adoption of QA risks oversimplifying complex healthcare environments and perpetuating the objectification of patients.
- The 'nursing gaze' may increasingly mirror the 'medical gaze' through QA practices.