Low-value and high-value care recommendations in nursing: A systematic assessment of clinical practice guidelines

The World Health Organization defines quality of care as providing effective, evidence-based care, and avoiding harm. Low-value care provides little or no benefit to the patient, causes harm, and wastes limited resources. In 2017, shortly after the start of the International Choosing Wisely campaign, the first Dutch nursing "Do-not-do" list was published and has become a widely used practical tool for nurses working in daily practice. However, over the last years new guidelines are published. Therefore, an update of the list is necessary with an addition of high-value care recommendations as alternative care practices for low-value care.

In this study, a combination of designs was used. First, we searched Dutch clinical practice guidelines for low-value or high-value care recommendations. All nursing care recommendations were assessed and specified to several healthcare sectors, including hospital care, district care, nursing home care, disability care, and mental health care. Second, a prioritization among nurses regarding low-value care recommendations was done by a cross-sectional survey for each healthcare sector.

In total, 66 low-value care recommendations were found, for example, "avoid unnecessary layers under the patient at risk of pressure ulcers" and "never flush the bladder to prevent urinary tract infection." Furthermore, 414 high-value care recommendations were selected, such as "use the Barthel Index to assess and to evaluate the degree of ADL independence" and "application of cold therapy may be considered for oncological patients with pain." In total, 539 nurses from all healthcare sectors prioritized the low-value care recommendations, resulting in a top five low-value care practices per healthcare sector. The top five low-value care recommendations differed per healthcare sector, although "do not use physical restraints in case of a delirium" was prioritized by four out of five sectors.

Assessing low-value and high-value care recommendations for nurses will help and inspire nurses to deliver fundamental care for their patients. These initiatives regarding low-value and high-value care are essential to generate a culture of continuous quality improvement based on evidence. This is also essential to meeting the current challenges of the healthcare delivery system.

This paper provides an update of low-value care recommendations for nurses based on Dutch guidelines from 2017 to 2023, specified to five healthcare sectors, including hospital care, district care, nursing home care, disability care and mental health care, with an accompanying prioritization of these low-value care recommendations to facilitate de-implementation. This paper provides a first overview of high-value care recommendations to reflect on and create alternative care practices for low-value care. The recommendations regarding low-value and high-value care are essential to generate a culture of continuous improvement of appropriateness based on evidence, finally leading to better quality of care and improving patient outcomes.