Quality assurance programme for nursing

This article describes a conceptual and methodological framework for evaluating nursing care quality. The conceptual framework is based on Orem's theory of self-care which emphasizes the importance of decisions in the selection of nursing process based on patient status and problems. The primary outcome criteria is self-care. The methodological framework is based on Greenfield's criteria maps methodology for linking patient status (problems or diagnoses) to decisions about nursing interventions and linking these specific nursing intervention criteria to desired outcomes for self-care. The article further describes a multiagency quality assurance programme for nursing. The programme includes: a definition of criteria and standards across agencies; nursing care management protocols that define standards of care; continuing education courses for nursing based on management protocols; the maps method of auditing actual and recorded nursing process and patient outcomes as defined in the management protocol.