Nurses touch the lives of every patient and are cornerstones in the delivery of safe, high-quality care. This session reviews the evidence that demonstrates the direct link between professional nursing care and quality outcomes that can guide hospital efforts to address the “perfect storm” of declining reimbursement, a shrinking workforce, and a mandate to demonstrate clinical excellence while reducing costs. Redesigning care and optimizing nursing’s role in quality, which are essential strategies to meeting these challenges, will be discussed.

After this presentation you will be able to:
• Discuss the growing body of evidence linking professional nursing practice to quality patient outcomes.
• Describe how nurses at all levels of the organization are transformational leaders of quality improvement in initiatives such as the 5 Million Lives Campaign, Transforming Care at the Bedside, and VHA’s system-wide quality improvement efforts.
• Identify best practices and promising approaches that demonstrate nursing’s role in eliminating the clinical quality gap.