A Comparison of the Current Situation and Expectation of Nursing Quality Assurances, the Nursing Department at Nongmuangkhai Hospital, Phrae Province.

Abstract

The purposes of this study were 1) to study the current situation of nursing quality assurance and expectations and 2) to compare current nursing quality assurance and the expectation situation at Nongmuangkhai Hospital, Phrae Province. The participants consisted of 38 nurses who had at least one year experience and worked at Nongmuangkhai Hospital, Phrae Province. They were selected by using purposive sampling method. The study instrument composed of a questionnaire on the current and expected situations of nursing quality assurance. This included 10 steps: 1) assign responsible persons, 2) scope of care, 3) specify important issues and standard/ guide for practice 4) specify indicators, 5) establish accepted quality level, 6) data collection and management, 7) analysis and evaluation of nursing care, 8) adjusted quality improvement, 9) continuous quality monitoring and improvement, and 10) report quality assurance results. The contents validity was approved by 5 experts and the Index of Item-Objective Congruence was 0.6 – 1.0. Cronbach’s  Alpha Coefficient of the questionnaire was 0.945. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and paired t-test.

The results showed that the overall quality assurance activities were at a high level (mean = 3.72, SD = 0.56). Nursing quality assurance expectations was also at a high level (mean = 4.32, SD = 0.49). Comparing the mean differences between expectations and current practice on the 10-ateps nursing quality assurance, the mean score of expectation was greater than the current situation yielding statistical significance at the level of .01.