Empirical Outcomes: An Autograph for Our Nursing Care

Background: Changes in the current healthcare environment necessitate an awareness to and transparency of safe and quality patient outcomes. In nursing, empirical outcomes are becoming increasingly important and are an expectation by several accrediting bodies. Some say the bar is lifted for nursing care; others say there is a stronger emphasis on patient outcomes as a measurement of our care. Both of these statements are true; and with this change, measurement of empirical outcomes provides greater evidence of nursing care within the healthcare system and across all providers. Empirical outcomes and the improvements nurses are able to make through best practices in nursing care, the nurse practice environment, and the patient experience are the autograph of our nursing care.

Purpose: This session discusses a step-by-step approach to achieving success using empirical outcome measures by describing the background, problem, goal, methods, participants, and outcome. Selecting the best metric and proper graphic display is key to demonstrating successful outcomes.

Methods: Empirical outcomes require a deliberate approach to describing and demonstrating improvements in nursing care through an outlined nursing process: background (assessment); problem (diagnosis); desired goal; intervention(s); and evaluation (outcomes). The goal statement is essential and indicates where the project started and its initial direction. The goal statement should reflect a measurable and desired goal attainment and match the quantitative data measurement used. Empirical outcomes require pre- and post-data to demonstrate excellence. Data is evidence of enculturated structures and processes and subsequent sustainment of interventions as the achieved outcome. Pre-data is required to validate that a problem existed prior to the implementation of an intervention or practice change. Each intervention described must have a minimum of three post-data points to demonstrate the effectiveness of the interventions and sustainability of improvement(s). Development of clear and readable graphs depicting all required information is key to demonstrating successful achievement(s).

Results: This session will provide examples of initiatives in nursing practice, the nurse practice environment, and the patient experience to describe the development and use of empirical outcomes to demonstrate nursing excellence. A guided outline for each example will be presented along with a detailed, graphic display demonstrating successful achievement of each goal.

Conclusion: This session will discuss the specific steps necessary to identify, build, describe, and demonstrate success in empirical outcome measurement(s). The use of empirical outcomes and improvements made through best practices in nursing care, the nurse practice environment, and the patient experience demonstrate the autograph of our nursing care.