Quality of Nursing Care and its Effect on the Patients in Critical Care Units

Background: Quality of nursing care is a process that sought to attain the highest degree of excellence in the delivery of patient care. Hence, Quality nursing care refers to the provision of safe, effective, patient-centered, and evidence-based care by nursing professionals. Aim: This study aimed to evaluate quality of nursing care and its effect on the patients in critical care units. Design: A descriptive exploratory research design was conducted to achieve the aim of this study. Setting: The study was conducted in three critical care units; medical, surgical and cardiac units at El-Mahalla El-Kubra General Hospital in Gharbia, Egypt. Study subject: A convenient sample included all available nurses which including 60 nurses and 180 patients at the critical care units of the previous mentioned setting. Tools: I- Quality of Nursing Care Scale in Intensive Care Units (QNCS-ICU): It divided into two parts to assess the nurses' demographic data and measuring the quality of care through many nursing activities given to the patients in critical care units. II- Quality of care indices: It divided into two parts to assess the studied patients' demographic data and the key indicators of quality of nursing care among the studied patients. Result: It revealed that 80% of the studied nurses had incompetent quality of nursing care level and 20% of them had competent level. Also, the study results displayed quality of nursing care indicators (Mortality rate, restraint use, pressure sore density, infection density and tube-self extraction) (44.4%, 26.7%, 11.1%, 7.8% & 1.1%) respectively among the studied patients. Conclusion: The current study found a highly statistically significant strong positive correlation between quality of nursing care and its indicators on the studied patients. Recommendations: Hospital administrative staff should evaluate quality of nursing care in critical care units periodically to use results for creation of positive work atmosphere for enhancing productivity and quality of nursing care for meeting the quality standards of ensuring patients safety.