A conceptual model for outcome assessment.

Area of Science:

• Nursing
• Healthcare Quality Assessment

Background:

• Nurse practitioners aim to demonstrate quality of care.
• Current quality assessments often rely on medical standards.
• Outcome assessment offers a direct measure of a nurse practitioner's health orientation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To highlight the importance of outcome assessment in evaluating nurse practitioners.
• To introduce Starfield's conceptual model for health-oriented outcome measures.
• To demonstrate how this model can evaluate nursing effectiveness in primary care.

Main Methods:

• Review of quality assessment variables.
• Application of Starfield's multi-dimensional health profile model.
• Focus on longitudinal outcome assessment.

Main Results:

• Outcome is the most direct variable for judging nurse practitioner care.
• Starfield's model provides a health-oriented, multi-dimensional approach.
• This model facilitates the evaluation of nursing effectiveness.

Conclusions:

• Outcome assessment is superior to medical standards for evaluating nurse practitioners.
• Starfield's model offers a comprehensive framework for assessing nursing effectiveness.
• This approach supports a longitudinal and health-oriented evaluation of primary care nursing.