Developing an activity measuring system in district nursing.
The current measurement of face-to-face contacts for calculating district nursing activity is inadequate for district nurses, their managers, and purchasers. With the growing emphasis on health outcomes, a measure is needed which demonstrates health gain and effectiveness, yet which does not place an additional burden for data collection on nurses' time. This article describes the preliminary findings of a project carried out in East Berkshire which suggest that such a measure is possible, and that effective care, including illness prevention, can be demonstrated. It shows that existing computer software can meet the demands for the measurement of health gain. While these are positive findings, district nurses, service managers and commissioners will need to allocate time to understand and interpret the data before drawing conclusions about the use of activity measurement in workforce planning, service costing and the effectiveness of district nursing interventions.
Bentley
J
J
Florence Nightingale School of Nursing and Midwifery, King's College, London.
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D003152:Community Health Nursing; D004282:Documentation; D006801:Humans; D009737:Nursing Records; D012984:Software; D013222:State Medicine; D006113:United Kingdom