Minding the Details: The Importance of Assessment Accuracy and Consistency in Managing Nursing-Sensitive Indicator Interventions

Description Evidence-based practice holds the potential to streamline health care, reduce costs, and improve patient outcomes. A good share of the data collected to create the evidence comes from electronic health records and other digital sources. Nurse-sensitive indicators, such as patient falls, pressure injuries, and hospital-acquired infections, are examples of data used to reflect the quality of nursing care. Other data may come from routine assessments nurses perform. It is crucial that nurses use valid and reliable instruments to create this data and that the use of the instruments is consistent across nurses in units, different shifts, and even different facilities. Ensuring awareness and consistency as well as interrater reliability in using validated instruments may seem esoteric, but it is as practical as it gets. This article will educate and explore these concepts, as well as provide examples of unintended consequences from inconsistent use of an instrument, and strategies to implement, ensuring best practices for instrument usage.