Multiple Levels of Impact of Nurse Consultant-Led Continuous Quality Improvement: The Experience of a Critical Care Nurse Consultant in Hong Kong

Abstract

Nurse consultants (NCs; intensive care) are actively involved in continuous quality improvement (CQI) projects, evidenced-based practice (EBP), and research to bring positive impact on patients, the nursing profession, and the healthcare institution. The clinical, professional, and leadership competencies of NC are essential elements for the successful initiation, implementation, and evaluation of CQI projects, EBP initiatives, and research. Dissemination and sharing of the evaluation results, via publications and presentations at conferences are of paramount importance to document the contribution of NC on improving the quality of patient care. This article reports on the experience of a NC with quality improvement projects spanning more than 10 years since introduction of the NC role. Quality improvement projects that are discussed include: prevention of ventilator-associated pneumonia, in-hospital follow-up of post-ICU discharge patients and prevention of venous thromboembolism with nonpharmacological measures.