Measuring up to the Principles - next steps

The RCN has a programme of activity to support the ongoing implementation of the Principles of Nursing Practice. This includes:

Developing dashboards summit

The Royal College of Nursing (RCN) organised a nursing dashboard summit on 3rd June 2011 and invited senior nurses from the four countries in the United Kingdom to take part. The nursing dashboard summit allowed each country to show their contribution in developing dashboards and also helped detail how the RCN's Principles of Nursing Practice (PNP) align with, and underpin the dashboards.

The RCN has published an overview of the nursing dashboard summit which encapsulates the contribution made by each of the four countries towards developing dashboards, and raises awareness about how the PNP can support staff in their quality improvement efforts. This is available at Nursing dashboards - measuring quality (PDF 1.1MB) - see how to access PDF files.

Identifying key issues in future development of measures

Two reports have been published on studies undertaken by the RCN towards the development of measures. Both reports were published in October 2012.

Views from advanced and specialist nurses on national, regional and local nursing measures: an RCN survey (PDF 841.3KB)
The publication reports the results of a survey of advanced and specialist nurses’ views of  national, regional and local nursing measures. The findings reveal a need for improvement across a range of factors including a better understanding of which measures are being used, where they are being used, and why they are being used. The survey findings complement earlier findings an appraisal of nursing metrics  undertaken at by Griffiths et al, 2008 which recommended a requirement to ensure that measures of nursing must be nursing-sensitive, they must recognise the nursing contribution, and they must  lie within nursing’s area of authority and responsibility.

Patient outcomes of specialist nursing services: An RCN quality improvement initiative (PDF 1.2MB)
This publication describes a series of focus groups and telephone/web-based interviews undertaken with patients and patient representatives to elicit their views on specialist and advanced nursing services across a range of care sectors. The outcome of this work is a patient evaluation questionnaire that can be used to measure the impact of advanced/specialist nurses. The items listed in the questionnaire have been identified by patients and have been mapped across the RCN’s Principles of Nursing Practice. The questionnaire requires further testing.