Quality of nursing care in surgery wards

Introduction
Modern model of providing high quality of healthcare recognizes internal quality assurance system as an important task for staff management, to ensure good nursing practice that would guarantee such conditions to allow safe treatment for patient.

Aim of the research
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the quality of nursing care provided in hospitals’ surgical wards with and without the ISO certificate (International Organization for Standardization) series 9001:2000 regarding quality management. The evaluation was completed by patients.

Material and methods
The research was conducted with the use of standardized questionnaire: the Hospital Consumer Assessment of Health Provider and System (HCAHPS), created by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) in the United States. Patients treated at surgical wards in Warsaw’s hospitals, completed those questionnaires distributed by the staff on the day of a patient’s discharge. The study consisted of 1,000 participants.

Results
Analysis of the results showed a higher level of nursing care based on different subscales in hospitals with the certificate than in those without it. In two subscales, the differences were important statistically: nursing services (p < 0.001) and patient’s environment (p < 0.001). Comparison of other subscales were not important statistically. With regards to reduced mobility, statistically significant difference was p = 0.03, and evaluation of hospitals was p < 0.001 and was higher for hospitals with the certificate.

Conclusions
Award of the certificate to the hospital had influenced the results received from patients regarding the evaluation of nursing care. From the service-receiver stance, we could obtain information about strengths and weaknesses of nursing care.