Evolution of Nursing Credentialing System at Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi

Lakhani, Amina K.

Tuesday, 31 July 2012: 11:05 AM

Amina K. Lakhani, BSN
Department of Nursing Education Services, The Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan

Learning Objective 1: The learner will be able to appreciate nurses' compliance with the regulatory requirements to provide safe and quality patient care on an ongoing basis.

Learning Objective 2: The learner will be able to recognize the impact of in-house developed nurses credentialing monitoring programme at Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi.

Background: Since inception in 1985 The Aga Khan University Hospital, Karachi has stressed upon continuing nursing education activities and credentialing of nursing staff working at the bedside. However, it was realized in 2002 that there is a lack of system placement for monitoring of re-credentialing of nursing staff in order to check for its validity.

The change process: An in house online credentialing monitoring system was developed by Department of Nursing Education Services for which the initial data was obtained manually from each of the nursing unit and then was entered into the system. The access for individual units was given to respective clinical nurse instructor (CNI) for input of data into the system. As a result of the online system availability CNIs now can nominate their staff for renewal of required certification courses like BLS, ACLS, PALS and medication. Moreover, it also helps in monitoring of validity of practice license validity for RNs and RMs.

Results: Since 2002 nursing staff credentialing has shown remarkable improvements. Following data illustrate the yearly progress in nursing credentialing:

Year

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

Credentialing and certification

82.6%

97.4%

97.4%

96.7%

98.6%

97.9%

98.0%

99.8%

99.2%

References:

Hravank, M. (2009). Credentialing and privileging for advanced practice nurses. AACN Advanced Critical Care, 20 (1), pp. 12–14.

Smolenski, M.G. (2005). Credentialing, certification, and competence: Issues for new and seasoned nurse practitioners. Journal of the American Academy of Nurse Practitioners, 17(6), pp. 201–204.

Safriet, BJ (1998). Still spending dollars, still searching for sense: Advanced practice nursing in an era of regulatory and economic turmoil. Advanced Practice Nursing Quarterly, 4(3), pp. 24–37

Hager, M., Russell, S., & Fletcher, S. W. (2008). Continuing education in the health professions: Improving healthcare through lifelong learning, The Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation. Retrieved from www.josiahmacyfoundation.org

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Year	2002	2003	2004	2005	2006	2007	2008	2009	2010
Credentialing and certification	82.6%	97.4%	97.4%	96.7%	98.6%	97.9%	98.0%	99.8%	99.2%