Quality improvement of nursing care in hospitals in India: the dynamic approach

A workshop was held in Calcutta in August 1992 by the Nurses' Research Society of India (NRSI), in partnership with the Royal College of Nursing of the UK, Dynamic Quality Improvement Programme (DQIP), to introduce an approach to quality improvement to nurses in India interested in evaluating and improving the care they provide. Since then, three sites have implemented the system for standard setting and audit (Dynamic Standard Setting System) which is the method for evaluating care used within that approach. An appraisal of the progress of the sites to date indicates that, in the clinical setting, nurses are progressing well with the writing of standards and have experienced little difficulty in understanding the theory and processes involved. They are currently revising the standards written with a view to implementing them and auditing them in the near future. This article outlines the introduction of dynamic quality improvement and the Dynamic Standard Setting System to the nurses in India and describes the progress of one of the test-sites currently working on its implementation.