Nursing-sensitive indicators: a concept analysis

Nursing-sensitive indicators (NSIs) are the criteria for changes in a person’s health status that nursing care can directly affect, and they form the foundation for monitoring the quality of nursing care. For example, they can assist in establishing a common ground for benchmarking and in providing evidence of the cost-effectiveness of nursing care. However, despite the considerable influence of nursing interventions on the quality of healthcare, measuring the quality of nursing care and its effects on patient outcomes and healthcare systems remains challenging. There is also little consensus on what constitutes an NSI, resulting in inconsistent conceptualisations for measuring the quality of nursing care and the use of several different terms to describe indicators that are sensitive to nursing interventions. This article describes a literature review and concept analysis, which enabled the authors to develop a concept model for NSIs, with the intention of improving the concept of NSIs.