Benefits and Challenges of NDNQI Data Usage: An Exploratory Study by the Oklahoma NDNQI Collaborative

Purpose:
The purpose of this study is to explore the extent hospitals in one state use and disseminate NDNQI reports and results to nursing staff within the facility. Challenges encountered in interpreting reports and improvements facilities have made through use of NDNQI results will be reported.

Background/Significance:
Twenty healthcare facilities in Oklahoma participate in the NDNQI and ten of these facilities participate in a collaborative organized by the Oklahoma Nurses Association (ONA) with goals to improve quality of care and promote evidence based practice (EBP) and nursing research. A range of experience with the database and an interest in how member organizations disseminate and use this data to improve care resulted in a nursing research project developed to answer these questions.

Methods:
This exploratory descriptive study uses an electronic survey instrument deployed on the ONA website. Study participants will be recruited from Collaborative hospitals. The twelve-item questionnaire with demographic and fill-in sections on result/report dissemination, interpretation challenges, and improvements made will be collected, downloaded and analyzed by the research team comprised of association members with experience in research methods and/or NDNQI database use. Answers will be analyzed for themes, coded into categories and trended. Descriptive statistics and nonparametric statistics will be used to determine if challenges or data utility vary across positions or preparation.

Results:
Data collection will begin in Fall 2009 and preliminary results will be ready by January 2010. Recruitment information about the study will be intensely promoted through ONA newsletters, email, and website posting.

Conclusions and Implications for Practice:
This research study explores how the NDNQI report is disseminated to nursing staff and will identify strategies and success that could inform others. The results of this study could be replicated by other states or groups to improve patient care and promote the value of nursing.