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Quality care metrics in nursing and midwifery

Nursing and midwifery quality care metrics (QCM) provide an indication of the quality of the fundamental of nursing and midwifery care. QCMs enable quality improvement and accountability of care.

The QCM measures are:

  • sensitive to the influence of nurses and midwives
  • appropriate for all care settings
  • aligned to evidence-based standards
  • agreed through national consensus

QCM provide the framework to identify gaps in care delivery, enabling action planning for quality improvement and provide a mechanism by which care providers can be accountable for the quality of their care delivery. MEG is an intuitive, cloud-based, digital, quality management system that can help monitor and measure care quality, drive improvement and support quality assurance.

Nursing and Midwifery Quality Care Metrics (2018) consist of a core suite of quality indicators across seven care groups:

  • Children's services
  • Older persons services
  • Acute services
  • Public health nursing services
  • Mental health services
  • Intellectual disability services
  • Midwifery services

The QCM process is cyclical as outlined in Figure 1

QCM Process
Figure 1

Benefits of QCM

Quality care metrics provide a measuring system that:

  • is specific to the measurement of nursing and midwifery care processes in individual care areas
  • monitors and assesses performance against evidence-based standards
  • provides real-time reports and a standardised system to track and benchmark the quality of care
  • quantifies trends and characteristics
  • highlights exceptional care and areas of risk which require immediate attention
  • enables targeted action planning for improvement
  • offers direction on educational needs for healthcare staff
  • promotes staff engagement and accountability for the quality of care

National guidelines for nursing and midwifery QCM

A suite of national guidelines are available to support services with the implementation of the 2018 Nursing and Midwifery QCM:

Summary Guidelines

QCM immediate risk/safety form

The QCM immediate risk/safety form is used to highlight an issue identified by the data collector while undertaking QCM collection that may need to be addressed immediately by the clinical nurse/midwife manager

QCM risk/safety form (PDF)

HSeLanD Modules

A suite of HSeLanD eLearning modules and online resources are available to support nurses and midwives in collecting and reporting QCMs on the MEG platform.

To access the resources follow these steps:

  1. Login to HSeLanD
  2. Select Courses
  3. Select Catalogue
  4. Select Clinical Skills
  5. Select Quality Care Metrics

QCM Research reports

A national research study encompassing both academic literature and input from front-line nurses and midwives was completed in 2018.

This research identified the important dimensions of nursing and midwifery care that should be measured, reflecting on the processes by which we provide care, and the values underpinning practice.

This research resulted in this suite of 7 QCM reports across these areas:

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