title: Findings From a Nursing Care Audit Based on the Nursing Process: A Descriptive Study.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Although using the nursing process improves nursing care quality, few studies have evaluated nursing performance in accordance with nursing process steps either nationally or internationally.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  This study aimed to audit nursing care based on a nursing process model.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a cross-sectional descriptive study in which a nursing audit checklist was designed and validated for assessing nurses' compliance with nursing process. A total of 300 nurses from various clinical settings of Tehran university of medical sciences were selected. Data were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics, including frequencies, Pearson correlation coefficient and independent samples t-tests.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The compliance rate of nursing process indicators was 79.71 ± 0.87. Mean compliance scores did not significantly differ by education level and gender. However, overall compliance scores were correlated with nurses' age (r = 0.26, P = 0.001) and work experience (r = 0.273, P = 0.001).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Nursing process indicators can be used to audit nursing care. Such audits can be used as quality assurance tools.
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Health Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Sarieh
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Poortaghi
authors.affiliation: Department of International Affairs Deputy, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Mahvash
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Salsali
authors.affiliation: Behavioral Sciences Research Center (BSRC), Nursing Faculty, Baqiyatallah University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Abbas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ebadi
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Health Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Zahra
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Rahnavard
authors.affiliation: Department of Community Health Nursing, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Tehran, IR Iran.
authors.forename: Farzaneh
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Maleki
keywords: Clinical Audit; Nursing Care; Nursing Process; Quality of Health Care