Nurse sensitive outcomes and indicators in ambulatory chemotherapy

Description/Abstract

The Nursing Contribution to Quality in Cancer Care work stream was established by the National Cancer Action Team in the spring of 2009. A work group was set up to take
forward a range of developments and tasked with delivering a set of actions around core issues that pertain to nursing workforce and the Cancer Reform Strategy. Its specific focus is on quality and outcomes of care. This report summarises the first stage of a project to
develop a system of indicators for quality outcomes that are sensitive to nursing in ambulatory chemotherapy. This review aimed to identify and assess the evidence for
indicators and to identify a small number of priority areas for development of a pilot system. To do this we undertook a series of scoping reviews and consultations with clinical experts. We identified a shortlist of 11 outcome areas and assessed the quality of evidence for the sensitivity of these to nursing. Overall, the strength of evidence was not strong although there was a clear indication that some outcomes may be sensitive to
nursing care. We could find no existing well evaluated sets of indicators but identified the development of indicators for safe medication administration, nausea and vomiting and patient experience as strong candidates for incorporation into a pilot system. Considerable challenges lie ahead in terms of arriving at precise definitions of indicators, the best means of risk adjustment and development of robust and feasible systems for data collection.