Using person-centred key performance indicators to improve paediatric services: an international venture

Nurses are a critical part of the healthcare workforce and provide a significant proportion of care. There is a recognised gap in the evidence base regarding how to measure the impact of care and its contributions to the quality of the patient and family experience. This paper focuses on a set of eight key performance indicators (KPIs), developed from primary research led by a team at Ulster University to reflect core aspects of person-centred practice. The KPIs, having already been tested across a range of practice settings, are currently being implemented and further tested through an international study in the area of paediatrics. This study set out to explore their utility in supporting the development of person-centred practice across a range of services provided to sick children. The study involves children\u27s wards/hospitals in Australia (six sites across three states) and Europe (seven sites across four countries). Its purpose is twofold: To describe the person-centred KPIs and how they link to the person-centred nursing framework 2. To describe how these KPIs are being further tested internationally across children\u27s services,and the benefits and challenges of this international approac

Good enough evaluation

A significant obligation still rests with practitioners and researchers to help spread an understanding - and ultimately a valuing - of person-centred practice among stakeholders at various levels, through systematic and meaningful evaluation of their efforts. While there is a range of frameworks (for example, Praxis and Fourth Generation Evaluation) that help guide the evaluation process, there is still the tendency to feel overwhelmed by choices when selecting the right tools or measures for the right people at the right time. In addition, a burden may be created by the amount and range of data produced and how this is analysed and used, which may result in incomplete, inadequate or incongruous evaluations. If we are unable to provide evidence of the effectiveness of our evaluations then stakeholders may assume practice development does not make much difference to the development of an effective person-centred culture. This paper focuses on the importance of evaluation in practice development work and outlines a new framework that incorporates the principles of person-centred practice. This framework will assist practitioners and researchers to undertake effective evaluations and produce strong, reliable evidence for key stakeholders. A case example will be outlined to illustrate the key principles of the framework and how it can be used in practice

An exploration of person-centredness in practice

\u27Person-centredness\u27 is a term that is becoming increasingly familiar within health and social care at a global level; it is being used to describe a standard of care that ensures the patient/client is at the centre of care delivery. In this article we explore the relevance of person-centredness in the context of nursing, taking account of the ongoing critical debate and dialogue regarding developments in this field. Person-centredness is recognised as a multidimensional concept. The complexity of the concept contributes to the challenge of articulating its shared meaning and describing how it can be applied in practice. The aim of this paper is to explore some of the issues pertaining to language and conceptual clarity, with a view to making connections and increasing our shared understanding of person-centred care in a way that can impact nursing practice. We begin by describing the development of the concept of person-centredness, after which we discuss the synergies with patient-centredness and other related terms, and consider how nurses can operationalise person-centredness in their practice

The development of the Person-Centred Situational Leadership Framework: Revealing the being of person-centredness in nursing homes

Aims and objectives\ud \ud To implement and evaluate the effect of using the Person-Centred Situational Leadership Framework to develop person-centred care within nursing homes.\ud \ud \ud Background\ud \ud Many models of nursing leadership have been developed internationally in recent years but do not fit with the emergent complex philosophy of nursing home care. This study develops the Person-Centred Situational Leadership Framework that supports this philosophy. It forms the theoretical basis of the action research study described in this article.\ud \ud \ud Methods\ud \ud This was a complex action research study using the following multiple methods: nonparticipatory observation using the Workplace Culture Critical Analysis Tool (n = 30); critical and reflective dialogues with participants (n = 39) at time 1 (beginning of study), time 2 (end of study) and time 3 (6 months after study had ended); narratives from residents at time 1 and time 2 (n = 8); focus groups with staff at time 2 (n = 12) and reflective field notes. Different approaches to analyse the data were adopted for the different data sources, and the overall results of the thematic analysis were brought together using cognitive mapping.\ud \ud \ud Results\ud \ud The Person-Centred Situational Leadership Framework captures seven core attributes of the leader that facilitate person-centredness in others: relating to the essence of being; harmonising actions with the vision; balancing concern for compliance with concern for person-centredness; connecting with the other person in the instant; intentionally enthusing the other person to act; listening to the other person with the heart; and unifying through collaboration, appreciation and trust.\ud \ud \ud Conclusions\ud \ud This study led to a theoretical contribution in relation to the Person-Centred Practice Framework. It makes an important key contribution internationally to the gap in knowledge about leadership in residential care facilities for older people.\ud \ud \ud Relevance to clinical practice\ud \ud The findings can be seen to have significant applicability internationally, across other care settings and contexts