Improving Patient Care Through Data Competence

* Nurse executives have the ability to set the standard for data competence in their organizations; and, by providing the nurse leaders in their department with access to patient data and education in data analysis, they can improve the quality and effectiveness of patient care. * The author argues that "data competence is a core competence of nurse leaders in the information age." * The question examined in this article centered on the presumptive ability of nurses to access, analyze, and present patient data to manage the health care of patient populations and maintain nursing's influence on health care delivery. * The Pew Commission has noted "the increasing availability of computerized patient information and stressed the need for health professionals to learn to manage large volumes of patient data to deliver quality care."
THE INFLUENCE of nursing in health care has long been rooted in our knowledge of the patient, and as health care has changed over the years, we have adjusted our [...]