Programs that are found to be effective in scientifically controlled research are often compromised and watered down when translated into clinical practice. When a promising research intervention fails to attain the same beneficial effects in clinical practice settings, agency administrators are likely to conclude that the intervention "really does not work." In reality, the problem may be that the intervention was poorly understood by its adopters and, thus, inadequately implemented. Public health nursing supervisors often lack access to timely data needed to track the quality of program implementation by staff. In an effort to ensure faithful implementation of the Nurse-Family Partnership program, a Clinical Information System (CIS) to monitor program performance and to provide data for continuous program improvement was developed. The CIS includes a set of recordkeeping forms that incorporate selected key measures collected in the research trials and adapted for use by nurse home visitors in the context of their practice with families. A key feature of the CIS is a set of computerized reports that public health nursing supervisors may access to monitor the quality of services received by individual families enrolled in the program as well as the nurses' overall management of a caseload of families. Illustrative examples of the CIS reports will be presented along with the guidelines provided to supervisors for interpretation of the reports and use in continuous program improvement activities.
Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of this session, participants will be able to: 1. Describe essential components of a Clinical Information System for monitoring implementation of the NFP program. 2. Describe the differences between quality assurance and quality improvement. 3. Discuss how public health nursing supervisors may use data about program performance to plan continuous quality improvements.
Keywords: Public Health Nursing, Evidence Based Practice
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: National Center for Children, Families and Communities, University of Colorado Health Sciences Center
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: Director of Evaluation, National Center for Children, Families and Communities