[Quality assurance in nursing at a county hospital]

This paper describes the different stages of the implementation of a quality assurance programme in a teaching hospital (828 beds) in Switzerland. In this project, quality assurance is part of our concept of nursing care. The described stages represent the three first steps of the adapted model of quality assurance by Lang (1976): --Identification of values in nursing teams --Establishment of standards including criteria for structure, process and outcome --Quality measurement (Self-review and peer review) The following actions are considered important for a successful quality assurance programme: --decentralized procedure (bottom-up approach) --quality assurance by professional colleagues from within the hospital --peer reviewed quality assurance Although the nurses find the establishment of standards very difficult and need expert advice for this difficult task, the initiated programme can be considered successful.